Jak and Spyro: Worlds United
by dragonwarrior06
Summary: One year has passed since Jak and Spyro saved their worlds from Metalkor and his forces, but a new conflict has arisen, and sinister forces lurking on both their worlds has forced them to join forces once again. The two heroes, their allies, and some new characters must unite together to bring an end to the coming darkness which threatens to engulf their worlds, and beyond
1. Prologue

This story is a sequel to my original Jak and Spyro crossover, it will have many similar elements with Jak 3, but will have my own ideas thrown into the mix as well. Do not read if you have not read Jak and Spyro When Heroes Collide yet!

 **JAK AND SPYRO**

 **WORLDS UNITED**

 **Ch1: Prologue**

On the planet Elorin, there is an area known as the Wasteland, a bleak unforgiving desert where those unfortunate enough to be lost will face a desperate struggle to survive. It is also where the inhabitants of the distant Haven city exile their refuse, citizens who have chosen to turn against the city or to stand up to the higher ruling power that was once Baron Praxis. With the tyrant now deceased, the city's ruling fell to his daughter Governor Ashelin and the Haven City's high council. Seeking to repair the damage left by her father and the recent Metalhead invasion, Ashelin along with Torn and Samos have united the city's security force from the Krimzon guard and former Underground members into a new group known as the Freedom League (FL), their sole mission to preserve the peace that the city had gained. Unfortunately, that peace was proved to be short-lived after one brief year, when the city soon found itself under attack once again, and brings us to recent events…

In the desolate wasteland, miles away from Haven City, a FL air transport flew through the desert to a predetermined destination. The flight was scenic but definitely not friendly, nothing but sand dunes, cactus plants and large mountains littered the landscape, no signs of refuge or life were visible in the surrounding area. The transport finally started to set down, its eco-jet engines blowing sand away making a small ripple in the loose landscape as it landed. The rear hatch opened up, revealing their cargo, two FL soldiers escorted the former hero of Haven, Jak onto the sand, one hitting him in the back to get him moving. Behind them stood Ashelin, feeling disconcerted about the unfolding events. The elderly man wearing a fancy suit next to her, was feeling the exact opposite as he read Jak his rights from a book in his hand.

"By order of the Grand council of Haven City, for heinous acts and crimes against the people, you are hereby banished to the wasteland, for life," he said shutting the book.

"This is a death sentence Veger!" Ashelin argued to the council high broker, "there must be another way."

"Your protest was overruled Governor," Veger retorted, turning his glare to Jak who did nothing but smirk, "this dark eco freak is dangerous! NOW DROP THE CARGO!"

"This is an outrage!" came another voice from the transport, who was revealed to be the parrot-monkey Packer, catching everyone's attention as he dropped down from the transport ceiling, "I am outraged beyond words, although I do have something to say, not everyone agrees with this ridiculous decree!"

To add to the surprises, Daxter dropped down from the ceiling in front of Packer and said, "Yeah! We want a recount!"

"oh I see you wish to join him?!" Veger questioned. Packer chickened out and changed his mind, "actually, we are not that outraged, farewell Jak! Stay out of the sun! drink lots of water…if you can find it of course."

Daxter shot him a look as the bird slunk back behind the seat to hide, his worried gaze then turned to Jak, "Jak?"

"Go back to the city Dax," Jak ordered. Ashelin walked up and unlocked his cuffs with her key card.

"I'm sorry," she said, "the council is too powerful, there was nothing I could…"

"I know," Jak interrupted her. Ashelin then took something from her pocket and shoved it into his hand.

"You just stay alive, you hear me? That's an order, I promise someone will find you," Ashelin reassured him as she turned back to the transport, but she said one more thing before walking on board, "I don't want to deliver Keira any news for mourning."

Jak slightly looked down at her last comment, for the feeling was mutual, for he didn't want to be the cause for delivering the bad news. As the transport engines fired up again and the rear hatch hydraulics slowly started to close, Veger said, "may the Precursors have mercy on you," finishing with a sinister smirk.

The hatch closed up, and the transport flew away blowing a bit of sand in Jak's face. He shielded himself as the vehicle disappeared from sight, looking again at the glowing beacon in his hand given to him by Ashelin before shoving it into his belt pocket.

"Cough!...cough!…hackkk!" The sound of coughing caught his attention, and he was somewhat surprised at who he saw.

"Daxter!" Both Daxter and Packer stood in front of him, dusting the sand off their bodies.

"Don't thank me, I'm only here because you wouldn't last a second without me! Now you got us into this mess and you're gonna get us out!"

"Ahh, what a team we'll make!" Packer agreed trying to get on their good side.

"Let's just get moving," Jak instructed getting them back on track, and observed their surroundings to figure out what direction would be best, "but which way?"

"THAT WAY!" Daxter and Packer pointed in opposite directions, with clearly not a clue.

"Oh and I suppose you know where you're going huh?" Packer asked.

"Better than you bent beak!" Daxter argued.

Jak facepalmed before turning around to start hiking, "Uggh, let's just move," both animals followed right behind him.

* * *

FLASHBACK

'Haven City Freedom League HQ'

"Jak the city's divided," said Torn, "reports say new Krimzon deathbots are holding the vital section of the Industrial area, my men are getting beaten around the bush! The KG have a new leader, we're still trying to find out who."

"I'm afraid I've got more bad news," Samos said walking up to them, "A large group of surviving metalheads have concentrated in another section of the city,"

"But we destroyed Kor!" argued Jak with Daxter on his shoulder nodding in agreement.

"It appears the strongest metalheads have survived," Samos responded, "the battle for the city has just begun!"

"The people are blaming you Jak!" Ashelin informed, causing Jak to shrink away in thought.

FLASHBACK END

* * *

The wasteland heat was finally starting to take its toll on the trio after two full days of hiking in the scorching sun. They were completely tired, not to mention dehydrated. Jak finally felt his legs buckle and his vision black out as he collapsed on the ground.

"Right…good plan Jak," coughed Daxter, "a nap would be nice…just a teensy little rest," and he collapsed right next to him.

"This bird is overcooked…plop!" Packer fell on the ground next to him completely exhausted.

"Cough…cough…the palace," Jak whispered before passing out into another flashback.

* * *

FLASHBACK

"Report," said Samos, who stood with Jak on top of the palace, down below the sounds of gunfire and the smell of sulfur littered the city.

"It's bad, the city has become a battlefield, mechanized deathbots have taken the industrial section, and the surviving metalheads have expanded their hold on the west side, all fronts are losing ground!" Torn reported as he flew over the city on his H-cat with Ashelin, avoiding various forms of cannon, laser and missile fire.

"The council is meeting tonight in an emergency session, rumblings about you Jak, it doesn't look good, they think your friendship with Krew helped the metalheads get into the city," Ashelin reported to them.

"You don't believe that do you?" Jak asked Samos for reassurance.

"What's in the past is done!" Samos said, "Right now, metalheads are assaulting the palace, they're looking for something, and I have no idea what…" the sound of an incoming missile interrupted him, and they both turned around, and were horrified to see a group of land missiles fired from the city west side impact the palace base, causing the palace to topple over.

KABOOM!KABOOM!KABLAMM!KABLAMM!

"Help! We're falling!" cried Daxter atop Jak's shoulder, trying to keep Samos from falling as well. The palace continued falling with all of them still perched on the walkway until Torn flew his cruiser in close to aid.

"Over here! JUMP!"

Jak and Samos wasted no time in jumping aboard the H-cat, and they immediately flew away from the wreckage before the rest of the palace finally collapsed on the ground with a sickening BOOOOMMMM! Destroying half the city including the farming and stadium area in the process. Flying around to the now open base of the palace, the passengers aboard the H-Cat couldn't believe their eyes.

"By the Precursors," Samos gasped upon seeing a series of cylindrical orange structures inside a gaping hole positioned below the palace base.

FLASHBACK END

* * *

As the wasteland sunset approached, three men in rugged desert outfits trekked through the sand searching for their quarry, until they found Jak and the two animals lying on the ground barely alive.

"Looks like we found some live ones, heh barely," one man wearing a crown said. He noticed something blinking in Jak's hand, and reached down to grab it.

"Here's the beacon we were picking up, who gave you this?" He picked Jak up by his scruff and asked. Jak didn't respond, his eyes just flickered out as he finally lost consciousness.

"We'll take them with us," he told his two companions, "move, I smell a storm coming."

* * *

 **Setting: Dragon Realms**

Across the stars, another event was currently happening on another planet far away. The structure that stood at the peak of a peninsula was deserted save for a few bugs, as well as the surrounding area. The ruined temple was nearly demolished, but it held a great many secrets, and that was the reason for the current search party that was investigating these ruins.

"Sparx!"

A shining little dragonfly flew down from the highest point of the temple to his large purple brother who called him down.

"What Spyro? In case you forgot I'm on a mission, then again how could you when you were the one who gave it to me in the first place!"

"Cool off, you've been up there for an hour, have you found anything?"

"Nothing but dust that is trying to sag my wings down, can't we just once come somewhere that was meant for dragonflies?"

Spyro just shook his head and turned around to the open door in front of him, it was 20 ft high and 30 ft long, so it was quite open to anyone who wanted to enter.

"Sparx, I am going to scout ahead, stay in this region until I come back"

Spyro started walking through the door and onto the awaiting pathway that led further into the temple. Inside was a lavishing sight to uphold, the sunlight had broken through the holes left by toppled bricks the wall needed to stand steady. He had to tread carefully because the remainder of his party trailed behind him, and they had to make it through as well, preferably unharmed. He started walking carefully making sure to take light steps to avoid upsetting the unstable structure around him.

Spyro came to a staircase and started descending, wondering what awaited him ahead, though through his experience in exploring temples he knew that the secrets would eventually reveal themselves.

After another two minutes, the end of the staircase came into view, but out after that, there was a wide atrium blanketed in darkness. Spyro dared not enter any further until he could find a way to shed some light. He looked to the left, and saw a red jewel fastened into the left side wall which appeared to be linked to channels along the wall. It was actually quite similar to the energy gem on the Armageddon Arch Spyro had found over a year ago.

Spyro lit the gem with his fire breath, causing it to glow. The energy then fed themselves into the channels along the wall. He watched as the fire energy traveled all the way through the channels ahead, branching off in multiple directions until it ended up illuminating the entire chamber.

At the end of the chamber, Spyro saw what he had hoped he wouldn't find, a dead end. But a closer look showed that the wall at the end of the tunnel was made of more than stone. Pictographs covered the whole area of the wall, from top to bottom. He moved closer to inspect it, and to his astonishment saw something familiar to him once before, but on another journey.

Outside the temple, the search party was waiting for an update from the purple dragon, of which included Terrador and two of his earth pupils Chloro who was obstinate and Vacu who was quite impatient. They had just completed their analysis of the temples exterior and other than finding a couple of old runes to ancient lost civilizations of dragons, there wasn't anything relevant to their real goal: Secrets of the Precursors. Ever since Spyro and Cynder's journey to another planet, they had been on the search for Precursor secrets on their own planet. Many attempts had failed as of now, but right now they were currently exploring new leads on this lone island. According to Ignitus, some of the ancestors had housed unknown treasures in unchartered territories on the planet, treasures of unknown relevance. Location was unknown, but they were told it would be marked by a common symbol, and the other search party included Cynder, Cyril, and two of his students were exploring another ruin several miles away on the same island.

Terrador and his pupils were about to enter the temple themselves until they saw Spyro running toward them from the temple mouth. He appeared to be quite surprised, "We have to bring in the others to secure this structure! This is what we have been searching for!"

* * *

Hello everyone! After many years of inactivity, I'm back, and ready to get creative again! I have finally decided to put some of my new ideas down on paper and publish them again, I can't wait to get started again. To all those who have read Jak and Spyro: When Heroes Collide, your wish has been granted, I've started a sequel, despite my earlier attempts to resist writing sequels, but I've come to realize they are not all bad, they are just a reason for writers to keep going. The chapters will be as long if not longer then they were in my previous story, but I will try to provide better quality then before. Anyway I've begun once again, and stick around, because the real adventure is about to begin!


	2. Chapter 2 The Rogue

For all those reading, I have to say its good to be back writing again, though I should inform you of a couple things, my life has become much busier than before, so I will only be posting one chapter per month, I ask you all to be patient because I intend to follow through with this story like the last one. I know you were looking for some new elements with this story, and I intend to bring them in, just keep watch, in fact I'm throwing in a little twist starting with this chapter, please review and no flamers.

* * *

 **Ch2: The Rogue**

"The desert is truly merciless, can take everything from you if you let it."

The desolate wasteland is vast, full of wide open areas filled with sand, mountains, sand, storms, and more sand. But the true mysteries are the ones hidden from the naked eye, numerous treasures and lost chambers remain buried over countless years lost to the test of time. However numerous sandstorms churn the sand revealing these lost relics, although not all the wastelands secrets are hidden below the sand. Rocks do more than just litter the landscape of the desert, there are numerous tunnels formed from the natural passage of terraforming. Inside one tunnel located on the south end of the wasteland, right next to a massive stone structure protruding out of the rock, housed an individual living the life of a true-blue survivalist. Right now, he was driving back in his desert modified off-road vehicle, dubbed the Dune Striker. It had four large knobby tires, a trio-powered turbo thrust, ultra-slip differential, and roof mounted machine guns for any threat the wasteland threw at him. He knew how treacherous the desert was, but learned to cope with all the hardships it brought, and fight off whatever it threw his way, be it sandstorms or marauders. He had heard of other survivalists like him living in the desert, but had never bothered to seek them out or join them, for he was content living in his own isolation.

His Dune Striker pulled up to the side of the south end stone structure and pushed the opener button on his dashboard, raising the boulder in front of him on hydraulic cylinders which slowly revealed an opening in the mountain, the garage to his hideaway. He drove inside and closed the door behind him.

"You did good today Cal, you did good today," he said to himself.

The wastelander named Calidan, AKA Cal was dressed in full desert gear, complete with a desert tan colored armored vest with loose shoulder and gut plating, fingered gloves and wrist coverings, a utility belt with ammunition and survivalist tools, suede sand boots and a bandanna and goggles combo around his head. He was greeted by a little black-furred wildcat that walked in as he exited his vehicle.

"Mrrowr"

"How ya doin Rob?" Giving him a rub on the head, he was actually quite big for a desert wildcat, considering how much he had grown since Calidan had found him hiding in his home 10 years ago. As for his home, it was ramshackle, yet quite spacious, aside from the garage lot that housed his Dune Striker and tool room, he had all the makings of home, a lone staircase led up to a small kitchen, then a small outhouse, finished with a lone bedroom. There was also a lookout fort above the garage that he could access via a ladder on the wall. Most of the room of his home was housed with his hobby, tinkering. All across the garage there was tools along with small projects he had been working on using materials he scavenged from the wasteland and even marauder camps. Inventions like a retractable sword, an electrified shield, and a miniburst eco cannon were among a few of his toys. Though there was one project he was currently working on now, and it was the one that had his utmost attention right now. It was something he had been dreaming of, but was still a ways away from completing it.

Calidan pulled out a bag from his Dune Striker and emptied the contents into a bin on the floor labeled "Scrap". To him scrap was recycled gold, and provided him the supplies he needed for his projects. Returning to his vehicle he also pulled out a dead desert muskrat, and dumped it in a bowl labeled "Robin".

"Dinners here buddy" he told Robin. The wildcat started nibbling at the carcass as he enjoyed his meal.

Calidan then ran over to the wall ladder, and started climbing up the walls of his home to his lookout tower. Once he reached the top he took some binoculars off his utility belt and started scanning the horizon surrounding the area. He could see the wasteland ocean to the west, where his secret entrance was located. In front of him was another matter, there were numerous land mounts extending from the ocean, all leading to an island just off the coast. Calidan knew what it was, the Monk Temple, he knew because of all the traveling expeditions he had seen jumping across on leaper lizards towards it. He never dared to make the journey himself, survivalist he was, he preferred not to mess with the secrets of the Precursors, for he believed it would lead to nothing but trouble.

Far across the extent of the Temple land mounts, he was searching for anything out of the ordinary, mainly Marauder troops. He had always made sure to cut off their advance before ever coming home, otherwise he would have to relocate. Once he saw nothing was in sight, he jumped back down to ground level.

"Looks like those Marauders are keeping their blind reputation true Rob, nothing within sights," he told his wildcat companion.

"I may have an armory here, but there is only one me, and if I were to take out even any of them, they would come hoarding in like a swarm of gnats."

"Mrowr" the wildcat groaned in between bites, Calidan deciding to tease his pet a little bit and act like he had actually spoken to him, just a running gag for the two at times.

"Don't start that again, I am not journeying out toward the desert city, way too crowded, plus their king is a hard nose, don't follow what he says and your back out on your own any way. And if I'm supposed to be stuck here, it will be on my own terms and no one elses."

Calidan well knew of the city of Spargus, ruled by the desert king Damas. The city was supposedly a paradise in the wasteland, filled with survivalists and refugees, but he never considered making that place home. He wasn't for playing well with others, and he was already fighting for survival where he was now. Plus he answered to no one, it made no sense to have to fight again just to live somewhere else where he wasn't his own boss anymore.

"Enough of that, the suns setting and I haven't had my own dinner yet," he said as he went up the stairs to the kitchen to finish the fish and fruit he had gathered from the oasis yesterday.

 **Setting: Deep Space**

Nothing unrivaled the vastness of space, completely open, completely devoid of oxygen, occupied by nothing but a few forms of matter, asteroids, planets, nebulas among the list. But it is always considered a great trek to fly through it, no matter the destination. But there are always unknown dangers among it, no matter where you go, and one such danger was about to make its presence known real soon. A dark ship filled with deadly cargo was making its approach to its intended destination ever so swiftly. However, on the side of the ship, a chamber opened up and out came a second vessel, a pyramid shaped pod which ejected itself from the ship and sent itself off flying in another direction.

The journey was long, but short due to the pods superluminal space drives. A lush blue and green planet was within the pod's path, and the crew aboard had it in their sights. The pod had entered the atmosphere and was starting to light up with heat as it picked up speed within the planets gravity while passing through its atmosphere.

Down on the surface, a group of locals within a nearby city were enjoying another peaceful day, unbeknownst to them, it would soon be interrupted. The light of the day hid the anomaly from most of them, as a red streak flew across the sky, and made its way toward a distant volcano, and ended up disappearing right behind it. Those that did see it enjoyed the sky show they had experienced and went back to their business.

The pod was smoking upon impact, the crater it had made was twice the size of the pod, though not very deep thanks to the landscape turf they had landed on. A port hole opened on top of the capsule, and out came an eerie long dark claw, followed by a head, an eerie elongated head with quills atop his head, that shook indicating the alien's excitement to bring another world to their knees. The alien invaders were ready to make themselves known to an unsuspecting planet.

The aliens lurked themselves slowly by air and land to their destination, the volcano where their ship had landed. They knew what their task was before they came here, and they were eager to complete it. The volcano was dormant, though it did show signs of being previously active, due to a large catastrophic event that occurred on this planet over a year ago. The aliens did not know the full details, all they knew was what their contact had known, and it was limited as well, save for the fact that he knew what they had been sent here to collect. Upon approaching the mouth of the volcano, they halted, and the flying aliens lowered themselves so their land counterparts could climb on. They made their decent inside the immense opening to the planet core. Their trek took a good 30 minutes, but they eventually came to a floored chamber made of volcanic rock that had been solidified. The land creatures set their feet on the rock and surveyed their grounds, they had a rough idea what they were looking for, but within this dormant volcano it could be anywhere. After scouting for a few minutes, a flying alien with its built in scanner picked up some anonymous high energy readings and lowered itself toward the ground and rubbed it with its claw. A dark purple gem shown through, and its fellow aliens gathered around it. After clearing most of the dust away, they could clearly see the gem glowing from its deep center, within it was some sort of animal figure. They were unfamiliar with it, but they knew they had found what they were looking for.

One of the aliens grumbled in its foreign language to another alien, who brought what appeared to be some sort of capsule with what appeared to be talons at the end and a glowing power source up top. The rest of his crew had dispersed, and the alien reached up and jabbed the capsule into the gem, a low hum sounding from it. All of them stood back from it as the humming grew louder. The power source up top finally hit its peak and let out a direct force of energy which plowed through the gem, causing it to crack under extreme force.

BOOM!

The shockwave was felt by the aliens who cringed from the blast. The device was dead smoking from its one time use. Unfortunately it had done its job, for gem shards were shaking underneath, slowly giving way to what had been buried for over a year. A dark purple claw burst from the rubble, and gripped the ground as the figure pulled itself free from its prison.

The planets greatest fear had been realized, the Dark Master was free again.

* * *

The first of my little twists, and there is more to come, read and review, because I am just getting started!


	3. Chapter 3 The Dark Alliance

**Ch3: The Dark Alliance**

At the temple, Spyro had gathered the others to discuss what he had found in the atrium. Cynder had returned to his side along with Cyril and his pupils Jace and Saphira. Jace was almost a mirror image of Cyril, color and all, except he had three horns instead of two on the back of his head, and a persistent attitude to boot. Saphira was a dark colored female with two horns on her head, as well as a soft calm voice and a sassy attitude to add to her nature, which made her quick friends with Cynder. All of them, including Terrador and his pupils Vacu and Chloro were approaching the end of the staircase to see what Spyro was talking about.

"So what is it you have found exactly? Can't the rest of us just wait outside to keep it secure like you wanted in the first place?" asked Vacu.

"Quiet Vacu! If this is what Spyro thinks it is we all must confirm it," ordered Terrador.

"He's right, trust me, we have found our objective," said Spyro as they reached the bottom of the stairs. They all took in the sights of the atrium, however Cynder saw what he had meant when he looked at the end of the hall. She gasped at seeing the symbol with two scythes circling each other against a flat base.

"The Seal of Mar!" she exclaimed.

"That's it," said Spyro.

"You are familiar with this symbol?" Terrador asked them.

"Yes, from our last journey, Spyro you did it! You found it!" Cynder cheered.

"Yes, but what have we found exactly?" asked Cyril.

"My thoughts exactly sir," commented Jace.

"As I've told you before, the Precursors have hidden artifacts of various kinds on our planet, and this symbol was what marked their artifacts on Elorin, so it has to be the same here," explained Spyro.

"We had better do a thorough investigation of this chamber then, leave no stone unturned," proclaimed Terrador, and all of them spread across the chamber to get to work.

* * *

 **Setting: Dragon Realms Volcano**

The aliens stood back slightly as the creature in front of them stretched its legs. The dragon had finished stretching its head and was now extending his wings before he spoke. It had been a long time for him since he last breathed fresh air, and he was relieved to finally move again, and hatch another plan. This time though, it was mainly for the prospect of revenge.

"Free…at last," Malefor darkly claimed. One of the aliens slowly approached him carrying some sort of disc in its hand. Malefor immediately looked up to notice the approaching creature.

"What is this? Another cretin?"

The alien said nothing and merely placed the disk on the floor and push a button on top to activate it. The disc lit up with a click and was illuminating light above it into some sort of static field. Soon an image was forming, one that nearly resembled a human head with long disfigured ears.

' _Interstellar team report, answer me, have you completed your objective? Has he been released?'_ The alien he was talking to pointed its claw behind the image. The image quickly spun around to see the dark dragon face to face.

' _Ah excellent, your objective was a success,'_ the image commented the aliens before turning towards Malefor again _, 'greetings powerful one, I hope you are more comfortable now.'_

"Hmm, more than I have been, what is it to you?"

 _'_ _Just trying to be kind, Malefor is it?'_

The Dark Master's eyes lit up ever so slightly, "How do you know me, who are you?" he demanded.

 _'_ _Just a friend, an unfortunate tortured soul like yourself, who has been bullied similarly by other lower life formed pests. Like your old foe the purple whelp'_

Malefors eyes continued to be wide, "You know of Spyro?"

 _'_ _Unfortunately yes, he has caused me a great deal of grief as well, along with his friend Jak,'_ the image growled saying the name.

"You seem to know much stranger, more than enough to make me suspicious," said Malefor.

 _'_ _I don't blame you, you really can't trust strangers these days, believe me I've been there, but seeing how I've gone through the trouble of freeing you from your prison, I would think you would like to hear what I have to offer.'_

Malefor stood still for a moment, then spoke with a stern gaze, "I'm listening."

 _'_ _What I am proposing is a mutual partnership, everything 50 50, resources, soldiers, ships, sharing of plans, all for the accomplishment of our mutual goal: the annihilation of Spyro and Jak.'_

"Interesting proposal, though I am inclined to ask, what is stopping me from destroying your minions and crushing your little magic box and taking revenge on Spyro for myself?!" Malefor declared in the images face.

 _'_ _I figured you might bring that up, which is why I should give you a brief preview of what lies ahead, and beyond.'_ The image then disappeared, stunning Malefor for a moment, and then the disk lit up again, this time with a larger spherical layout of a whole planet, one with displayed regions and complete with an astronomical star map that encompassed it.

 _'_ _Witness the dawn of a new era, one without limits, one without rules, nothing but eternal conquest settled in locations of our choosing, this world, significant as it is only one of many bodies outlying the expanse of the universe,_ ' the display quickly changed, to reveal an outlying plethora of planets, their moons, galaxies and nebulas _, and other astronomical bodies._

 _'_ _a universe that lives only for the mere prospect of peace and unity, quite small minded if you ask me. But imagine if we could extend that livelihood, could broaden the regions of the universe with our image, spread it across the cosmos to serve our means,'_ the image then faded down to show only the face again, ' _our own individual means of course.'_

Malefor seemed completely stunned by what he just heard, but one could tell he was processing it currently.

 _'_ _That is what I meant by 50 50, not just the shared satisfaction of revenge, but the shared domination of the universe, and with both of our resources combined, it will be assured, provided we get rid of our mutual foes together, once and for all.'_

Malefor was blank for a moment, as he finished processing everything he had heard from the stranger. His eyes closed for a second and then, he started chuckling, very darkly and eerily.

"Hehehe, you have a way of piking ones interests stranger, you have made quite a proposal."

' _So, do we have a deal?_ ' the image smirked.

"Deal, and who might I have the honor of addressing?" asked Malefor. The image grinned darkly before giving his new partner his name.

* * *

 **Setting: Dragon Realms Precursor Temple**

The search party had just finished surveying the atrium for anything that led to more clues about the Precursors, but aside from the Seal of Mar, there was nothing else except for some more old runes they couldn't decipher. They had decided to contact Ignitus and see if his expertise could interpret the runes for them. They had used some tracing paper the moles back in Warfang had given them to inscribe the runes upon, and then made their way back outside the temple together to set up contact. Once together, Terrador reached into the sack around his neck and pulled out a white glowing gem, a mystic gem courtesy of the White Isle, their only means of contacting Ignitus the Chronicler. Terrador placed it on the ground in front of them and touched it on the hem with his paw. The gem alit with a blinding glow and enveloped the dragons, causing their eyes to squint. Soon the image of Ignitus had shown itself admist the light.

"Hello my friends," said Ignitus.

"Hi Ignitus," said Spyro relieved to see his old mentor again.

"Greetings," said everyone else.

"I can presume you've discovered something of great relevance," Ignitus stated.

"Yes, we found the symbol of Mar in the atrium of this temple," Spyro began, "we searched the entire vicinity inside but found nothing else pertaining to the Precursors."

"We did find some old runes on the walls," Terrador spoke up while bringing out the tracing paper, "I cannot identify one symbol, we were hoping your documentaries can shed some light on this carvings."

He showed the paper to the Chronicler, and he looked at it accordingly. They waited patiently for him to decipher it, though Vacu was uneasily twitching for obvious reasons. Ignitus analyzed the paper from top to bottom, reading every rune carefully attempting to interpret it, unfortunately he too seemed to be stumped, as he seemed uneasy while reading the paper. Finally, he relaxed his shoulders and took a breath.

"Humph, I'm afraid I cannot interpret one character," he dismally spoke. Everyone else went wide eyed.

"But you're the Chronicler!" Cyril exclaimed, "If you can't interpret this then there is nothing…"

"Cyril wait," Ignitus interrupted him. "I said I couldn't interpret it, and yes through my whole library I have never seen any resembling this form of language, but that does lead to one logical conclusion."

"Which is?" Cyril asked.

"We have definitely discovered a place created by extraterrestrial beings, for their language is completely different from anything our race has ever created, therefore we can conclude we have found our first clue."

Everyone seemed to understand what he was saying, and then Cynder asked, "Could we compare these runes then to those on the Armageddon Arch? When we first found it there was also some strange runes on that we were unable to interpret, that way we can link the two together?"

"That can be a step in the right direction Cynder, we shall make that verification tomorrow, right now it's getting late and I'll do some more research into these ruins, there may be something that I overlooked," Ignitus said before his image faded out, and the shine from the mystic gem died down. Terrador picked up and pocketed the gem.

"Good call on that Arch Cynder, you really do have some brains that everyone talks about," complimented Saphira.

"Thanks," Cynder replied with a smile. She then turned to Spyro, who followed up on the comment with a nod.

"Well then, we've put in a hard day's work, its best we retire for the evening, we'll follow up Ignitus's lead tomorrow," said Terrador

The dragons had made camp outside the Precursor temple and were sleeping away peacefully. Crickets were chirping and the twin moons were shining brightly over the night sky. Below on the ground, Spyro and Cynder slept together comfortably, it seemed nothing could disturb them. Unfortunately their comfort was their ignorance in this case, because across the night sky, an invading force was on its way toward the temple, with a dark agenda in mind. The aliens from the pod were flying at top speed with the Precursor temple in their sights, the land creatures flying atop their aerial counterparts. They flew in low around the coast side of the temple, attempting to sneak past the dragons as silently as they could. The land aliens jumped from their aerial mounts and grasped the temple exterior with their claws. They started crawling their way up the side of the wall making their way toward the surface. The dragons continued to sleep as their unexpected visitors kept crawling closer. They made their way to the stoop overlooking the temple entrance, and jumped down to the ground, barely making a sound as they hit ground. They looked to the dragons still asleep for the night. One alien crept closer as if he was stalking them like prey, ready to attack. However another stopped him by the shoulder and shake of the head, indicating they still had a job here. The alien huffed, and followed his compatriots toward the temple entrance. All of them disappeared into the darkness, all the while there was a stirring behind them.

Spyro snorted and shook his head slightly awake, then slowly opened his eyes and turned towards the temple, he swore he could sense something in his sleep. The sound of soft breathing grabbed his attention, and he looked dreamily toward Cynder as she slept peacefully. Not wanting to disturb her he slowly rose to his feet and tiptoed toward the temple to check it out. As he approached the entrance, he could smell something odorous, it was also unfamiliar, and he wrinkled his nose and shook it off and made his way forward. He walked carefully through the hall making sure he didn't upset anything, until he saw it…he gasped, in front of him was a footmark, a footmark unlike anything he had ever seen, it was completely foreign to him no creature he knew could make a footmark like this. He tensed up, he knew now there was something else in this temple now, and he didn't know if it was friendly or not. He approached the staircase silently, and made his way down with a wisp of his fire breath to light the way. He slowly made his way down, putting one foot in front of the other. Eventually he reached the bottom of the staircase and extinguished his flame. Though he didn't need it, for something else was glowing in the atrium, an eerie purple.

Spyro immediately ducked down to a small step located on the floor and looked ahead with wonder and shock. Eight foreign creatures were looming by the wall which housed the Seal of Mar. One of them was running his claw down the face of the wall, as if it were searching for something. It kept creeping along it until it stopped near the bottom, it moved its claws against an extrusion on the wall and then opened its hand up. Purple lightning was eroding from the hand and making contact with the wall. Spyro watched intently, wondering what was happening. Suddenly an opening occurred within the wall, some sort of drawer had opened up. The lightning stopped, and the creature turned toward one of its compatriots, another one reached out its claw, within it held some sort of dark crystal. He made its way toward the wall, without knowing that one shard had fallen off the crystal as he walked forward. The creature set the crystal in the open drawer. The drawer seemed to close automatically, and then the real show began.

* * *

There was a shift that rocked through the temple, making a small tremor that shook the dragons slightly, stirring them in their sleep, but not all the way. Although Cynder opened her eyes briefly and looked around slightly, and noticed that Spyro was missing.

* * *

Spyro watched in awe as the whole wall seemed to glow with an intermittent light. The Seal of Mar that encompassed the wall began to split apart at the seams, one scythe went to the left, and another went to the right. They both revealed an open swirling vortex that grew so immense that it eventually took up the whole wall. Spyro knew immediately what this was and thought, 'Another interstellar portal.'

The creatures looked to each other speaking in their foreign language as if they were discussing some sort of plan. They then took their first steps toward the portal ready to enter.

"HEY!"

The creatures spun around immediately, to see the purple dragon standing in the atrium with a serious look on his face. His paws gripped the dirt and he spoke to them aloud, "I don't know what all of you are, but you are trespassing on protected property, and I'm going to give you one chance to turn around and don't come back, understand?"

The creatures to each other again upon hearing the dragon's demand, needless to say, they didn't consider it. The quills on the back of their heads twitched as they slowly hissed at Spyro with their claws drawn.

"I guess we do this the hard way then," Spyro said as he got into a fighting stance, "Bring it"

* * *

Chapter 3 is up, hope you all enjoy!


	4. Chapter 4 Deja Vu

**Ch4: Déjà vu**

Sand did nothing but envelop the wasteland landscape, both on the ground and in the air. Storms could be nothing but a calm, yet irritating breeze, or a heavy sand squall that could tear the flesh from your bones if you were foolish enough to be stuck in it. Fortunately the worse of the storms had yet to come, and all was as calm as it could be in the desert. Even the volcano at the center of the isle was dormant, though the inside of the geographical landmark was anything but. In fact it was actually quite fertile, a sort of oasis inside the desert, but it wasn't peaceful, hostile creatures like metalheads made their home here. But hey, in a dangerous environment like this, makes sense the creatures would be dangerous too. However there was something other than creatures present in this volcano, something far more hazardous. A dark satellite had fallen on this volcano quite some time ago, and had integrated itself at the mouth. Some of the locals had even sent an expedition to this mountain to investigate it, but they never returned. However that did not stop other people from trying. In fact there was one such adventurer that was climbing up the cliff toward the satellite right now, with his orange furred sidekick right beside him. As soon as he reached the top of the cliff, his cohort ran ahead of him toward what appeared to be a frozen corpse, holding some sort of dark idol in its hands.

"Looks like it didn't agree with him," said Daxter reaching out to grab it.

"Don't touch it Daxter!" warned Jak, "who knows what more Dark Eco would do to you."

"Look at me Jak," Daxter replied gesturing to himself, "I'm short, I'm hairy, and I itch in strange places, I couldn't do worse." Jak did nothing but shake his head.

"Relax, I know what I'm doing," said Daxter, and reached out to grab it again. "Oh yuck!" he repulsed at the sudden realization he would have to touch the rotting hands of the corpse. "Cold, clammy dead hands…oh I can't look." He finally grabbed the idol and tugged at it trying to pry it loose. It was a minor struggle, but it suddenly came loose, flew up in the air and started falling toward Daxter!

"LOOK OUT DAXTER!" yelled Jak diving in and grabbing the idol in just the nick of time. Before he had a chance to take a breath, the idol suddenly started glowing in his hands, and within a snap, Jak's body disappeared!

"Jak, Jak? Where are you buddy?" Daxter asked looking around. Jak suddenly dropped the idol, smashing it to pieces, and he was visible once again.

"It's a dark power Dax," he said with shock, "some kind of invisibility."

"Yeah? Well cut it out!" yapped Daxter, "If you had moved that fast a long time ago, I would still be wearing pants! You know what I really miss? Soft underpants, know how it lifts and cradles? Ahhh" Jak just stood silent, for there was nothing to say.

"You wouldn't understand, come on we're out of here," Daxter said walking away from the satellite, Jak followed behind leaving the satellite and corpse in peace.

* * *

The aliens screeched as they lunged at Spyro, he quickly got into a defensive stanch and prepared to attack. When they were only 10 feet away, he let loose a fire inferno from his mouth which engulfed the five land creatures in fire. They screamed even louder and started jumping up and down trying to extinguish the flames. Spyro then lunged back with his claws drawn. He attacked the first alien with a three claw attack, sending it down on the ground. One of the aerial aliens started shooting dark streams of energy toward Spyro, which he agilely dodged first to the left, then to the right and then overhead. One of the aliens on fire nearly extinguished his flames and then drew back his arm generating a cloud of purple energy in his hand. Spyro was firing an electricity bolt at an aerial alien before he was met with a dark energy bomb flying his way.

BOOM!

Spyro was flown back toward the wall, heavily shaken from the surprise attack by the land alien. The aliens had just finished extinguishing the flames Spyro had inflicted upon them. When they saw that Spyro was down, they started lurking back toward him hoping to finish the job. Spyro was just raising his head and shaking the cobwebs loose as he tried to readjust his vision. He could see four duplicates of everything around him, including the aliens, so it was like seeing 32 of them. Knowing he was in no shape to fight right now, he made a defensive move. Channeling his earth energy, he surrounded himself in a rock laced shell as he attempted to regather his senses.

The aliens halted upon seeing what had just conjured around the purple dragon. One however moved closer and took a claw and placed it on the rock shell. He then started a slashing move and hit it, followed by another slash, and then soon, his friends had joined in and were clawing at Spyro's rock guard together. Inside the rock, Spyro was trying to focus, regather his senses so he could launch another attack. He took a deep breath, trying to relax despite the attacks that were being unleashed on his shield.

* * *

Cynder had finally decided to get up, she just couldn't sleep anymore, mainly it was out of curiosity and worry where Spyro would go in the middle of the night, she didn't think he was in the temple, they had already concluded they had gathered everything of value in there. She decided to get a quick drink from the nearby spring, something to relax her after a rather uneventful afternoon.

She turned toward the temple, and was wondering why she felt uneasy, as if something in the temple had been overlooked, or someone was one step ahead. She decided the temple was worth another look, even though it was in the middle of the night. She slowly walked toward the temple, so as not to disturb the others.

* * *

The aliens continued clawing at Spyro's rock shield, they had broken nearly halfway through. Spyro was still concentrating, keeping his eyes closed through the tension of maintaining the shield, for once it dropped, he knew he would be under attack. The aliens had nearly broken through, one was able to get his claw through the shield and was reaching for Spyro. Suddenly the shield was enveloped in yellow light, and the aliens halted their attack and slowly stepped back as the light grew stronger and stronger, and then exploded.

ZZZBOOMM!

An electrical outburst blew the aliens off their feet as Spyro released an electricity pulse. They all ended up on the floor, save for the aerial aliens who flew a bit further back from the dragon as the energy dissipated. Spyro took a few deep breaths trying to regather his strength after expending the energy. The aerial aliens weren't going to give them the chance. They started shooting at Spyro, causing him to inch back toward the portal the aliens had opened. Their shooting continued causing Spyro to retreat further, he looked behind to see the maw of the portal right behind him. He stood his ground, for he knew one misstep could land him in an unknown location, one trip he preferred not to make.

* * *

Cynder had just walked into the hallway and hadn't experienced anything out of the ordinary, though she did hear some strange noises that aroused her suspicion. She was about to approach the staircase, until she saw something that grabbed her attention, a strange footmark she had never seen before, along with a footmark she did recognize, Spyro's print. She looked ahead, starting to feel a shade of panic.

"Spyro," she whispered, and then suddenly rushed to the staircase.

* * *

Spyro shot fireballs at the aerial aliens trying to drive them back, but the aerial attackers were nearly as agile as Spyro, and were taking advantage of his disorientation. However, their advantage was the least of Spyro's problems, as the portal started to hum even louder than before. Then, for the second time in his life, Spyro felt it again, the suction of the portal. Instinctively, he dug his claws into the ground to prevent being dragged in.

"Here we go again," he stuttered. The aliens stood up, as if they were not affected by the portal vacuum. Then they did something Spyro didn't expect, they ran right past him and all eight of them jumped into the portal. Spyro was slightly shocked, he expected they would want to finish him, but he now understood why they came here in the first place. Now he had to deal with the pull of the portal. The force was growing stronger and he could feel his claws dragging on the floor. He tensed his muscles further to prevent being dragged any further, only to no avail. His claws were about to slip, then suddenly he looked up to see a surprise. Cynder had made her way down after him!

"Cynder!" he yelled.

"Spyro!" she screamed.

"Stay back or it will take you too!" one paw came loose, and the other was about to follow.

"I'm not leaving you!" yelled Cynder.

"Stayyy," he started, just after his paw gave way, "BAAACCKKK!" he disappeared into the vortex.

"NOOOO!"

* * *

There was nothing around but a blue spinning vortex that seemed to stretch to infinity. As ethereal as the environment was, it was something Spyro was quite familiar with, as he felt himself tumbling without end through the vortex. Although this time he was alone, no Sparx and no Cynder were here with him this time, and he had no idea where he would end up on this trip. All he could do was hang on tight as he flew through tunnel. The exit seemed to be approaching, as the blinding light was becoming even greater further ahead of him.

* * *

Calidan was busy re-organizing his shop area, some of his scrap metal finds had been mixed with his tools, creating a big cluster pile, and was taking his time to clean everything up. The mess was due to the big project he was working on, he had it nearly assembled, but was missing two critical components, an ample power source, and a stabilization conduit, which was rare if not impossible to find in the wasteland. He was always sneaking into Marauder camps to find parts for his toys, and he enjoyed every moment of it. Outsmarting those marauders was good fun for him. He dared not try to sneak into Spargus to scavenge for materials, he knew he was not only outnumbered if he went there, but outmatched as well as the Wastelanders possessed firepower beyond his resources, not to mention stealing from Damas's kingdom would inevitably make him an enemy. Becoming an enemy of the desert king would ultimately make him a dead one, he preferred dealing with the wasteland where he had a chance to survive.

"Been quite a profitable day Rob, managed to scavenge some ammunition from the Marauder camps, they'll work well with the Omega Fire I recovered last week," he said as he put his tools away. He then picked up the ammunition box in his scrap box and placed it on the table. Next, he opened a cabinet above the table, which housed his firearms, each locked on the trigger with a key combination. He typed in the combination for one, a short red tipped automatic rifle like firearm with a large circle on top and two small barrels right below it. He took it out of the cabinet and opened his ammunition box. He took a few rounds out and placed them in the stock.

"I'm gonna go test these new rounds out, then call it a day," he said. He put on his desert scarf and goggles and walked over to a small gate latched into the wall. He unlocked and opened it to reveal a small tunnel into the rock. He then crawled in and closed the gate behind him. It was pitch black for a moment, until he pressed a switch on the side of his goggles and a flashlight lit up, lighting the way. He crawled along for about five minutes until he came to an open shaft that allowed him to stand up. There was a ladder in the shaft, which led to the surface. He climbed up to another locked gate, which he unlocked with a flick of a mechanical switch. Up above the surface, he found himself in the center of a series of degraded structures, ruins of some kind that had been unveiled by wasteland storms over the years. It was here that he found his shooting range, a little retreat away from his hideout. He unlatched the Omega Fire from his back and took aim. He was about to fire, until a blinding flash lit up the sky!

SHOOMM!

Calidan looked up at the sky while regathering his vision and could just barely make out a shimmering light illuminating from the Monk Temple. He was wide-eyed, wondering what could be the cause of such an event.

* * *

Elsewhere in the desert city of Spargus, the wastelanders were going about their business, whether it was gathering food and water from the wells and markets, or cleaning their guns. Maybe it was chasing out annoying desert vermin from their homes, either way it was just another day in survivors paradise, provided there wasn't a large sandstorm heading their way. Only then would everyone barricade themselves indoors and prepare for the worst. However their day was about to be interrupted…

SHOOMM!

The whole sky seemed to be enveloped by a glimmering light, catching everyones attention, including that of the ruler of the city from his tower palace, he could see the direction of the source, toward the south end of the wasteland. He was akin to wonder, what could it mean?


	5. Chapter 5 Reunion

Hello and welcome back! Here is probably the most anticipated chapter so far, nothing like a reunion between good friends, hope you enjoy!

 **Ch5: Reunion**

As the shimmering light illuminating the temple subsided, another small event was taking place at the temple entrance. A warp gate stationed near the temple entrance was coming to life, someone was coming through. In fact it was two, as Jak and Daxter emerged from the gate returning from their volcano expedition. Looking around the atrium, Jak saw something on the far wall, another dark precursor idol, the same one that activated his invisibility powers in the volcano. He knew the guarding eye of the door that led into the temple would not allow him to pass while he was still visible, so using common sense he walked over to the idol with Daxter on his shoulder and reached out his hand to touch the idol and activate his invisibility. Now invisible, he walked over to the guarding eye and strolled right passed it. As soon as he approached the door at the end of the hall, the eye vanished and he resumed his visibility.

"Now that was out of sight," Daxter remarked.

"Terrible quote Daxter, terrible quote," Jak said shaking his head.

"Eh, everyone's a critic"

They entered the staircase leading down to the temple depths, only to find themselves in the midst of a group of giant spiders!

"Yeeekkk! Not spiders!" Daxter cried. Jak immediately drew his blaster and opened fire at the creepy crawlies. Within five shots they were all dead, allowing them to pass further into the temple.

* * *

Spyro woke up with a blistering headache, his ride through the tunnel took quite a number on him, screwing up his senses. He lifted his head and tried to shake the exhaustion off. He slowly stood up as his strength slowly returned to him. He observed his surroundings, he was in an open spherical room with an open exit right in front of him, he looked behind and saw an even greater open space embedded in the wall. At the end was another familiar sight, a large arch with embedded channels, the only thing missing was the large gem that supposedly powered it.

"Wow, two interstellar travels in just a year, if this keeps up I'll start to spend more time and distance traveling then I do at home," he said with light humor. But it quickly vanished, as he realized something.

"If those aliens went through before me, where are they?" Spyro asked himself looking around, but the aliens were nowhere in sight, he figured they must have been sent somewhere else. But then he had another terrifying thought.

"Cynder, oh I hope she didn't come in after me, I don't want her to fall in and end up somewhere else, these portals always seem to transport in random locations." He looked around and started walking toward the open entrance in front of him. He was astonished by what he saw, a large group of orange colored statues with extended arms mounted in the center of another large chamber in front of him. The chamber appeared to have multiple openings in front of the statues, verifying that they could be some sort of entrance or exit. As for the statues, they appeared to have platforms in their hands, and large heads with elongated noses. Spyro was unfamiliar with these statues, but they did catch his interest, as if he already knew something about them. The sound of an opening door alerted him, and he dove back into the room that he had just entered.

"What is going on here?!" a stern voice sounded. "A shining light envelops the temple and you can't find the explanation for it?"

A soft voice answered, "I am sorry, this sort of phenomenon is foreign to us, it may even predate the chronicles of our elders."

"Then I suggest you do your research, I want an explanation soon, now what are the results of your additional study related to the catacombs?"

"Slow, and unfortunately inexplicit, the texts are many and…"

"I want no excuses! You told me this could be done, now make it so!" Spyro peeked around the corner to see who was speaking, the stern voice belonged to a tall man in some sort of business suit, and the soft voice belonged to a young woman with a painted face. Spyro also noticed the elongated ears they both had, ' _It can't be, I'm back…_ '

His thought was interrupted by the woman, "but we have so little time, the Day Star approaches, you know what it brings!"

"Unfortunate yes, we will deal with that as soon as I have full access to the catacombs, just continue your work and I will deal with those idiots in Haven, I promise you will meet your makers!"

' _Haven_ ' thought Spyro and he finally realized where he was.

' _I'm back on Elorin! I found another way back to Elorin! Jak's world_ ' He felt relieved that he knew where he was, and even better that it was the world of a friend. However, he knew he would have to find him in Haven city, which location as of right now was unknown to him. He looked again, and saw that the two people were gone, the coast was clear. He decided now was the best time to leave, and took flight to the left and down to another floor which led to a door. He had just landed, only to be halted by a booming voice.

 **"** **Greetings great warrior, your return brings us great hope, this planets future is at a critical juncture"**

Spyro looked around for the source of the sound but saw nothing, at least nothing that was moving.

* * *

Jak and Daxter, having entered the chamber and listening to Count Veger's orders to Seem, the head temple monk, knew something big was about to take place. Once they saw that they had vanished from sight, they came out of hiding. Now they stood at the foot of the statue as it continued speaking.

 **"** **The dark ones have found your world again, and fate hangs in the balance where the past and the future collide."**

"Do you have any idea what he just said?" Daxter asked Jak.

"Speaketh a normal language okay?" he told the statue while comically moving his figures in faux sign language.

 **"** **You will need all the power you can muster to survive this terrible test great one."**

"I can handle it" Daxter replied.

 **"** **I was talking to the tall one shorty!"**

"Hey!"

* * *

Spyro's ears perked up, he had just heard a loud squeaky voice, a voice very familiar to him, though he hadn't expected to hear at this very moment.

"No, it couldn't be" he said.

 **"** **Look into the light, and receive the power hero"**

Spyro flew up and peeked over the statue to see a fortunate sight, one that also shocked him, he didn't believe he would find them this fast. Jak and Daxter were on the adjacent platform ahead of him, although something strange was happening to Jak, he was levitating, engulfed in some strange blue light.

"Okay, now you're scaring me," Daxter said observing. Jak's feet fell to the ground again as the light disappeared.

"Dax, the dark eco, it feels far away, I feel better." Daxter was dumbfounded, but immediately figured it was another weird precursor trick. When it came to Jak he was always the magnet for unusual events. He jumped back onto Jak's shoulder, and the hero turned around to leave, only for a surprise to swoop in from above!

"WOAH!" they yelled for a moment, until realization struck them.

"Spyro?!"

"Jak! Daxter!"

"SPYRO!"

"I can't believe it's you guys! I never expected to see you again so soon!" Spyro exclaimed.

"We're just as surprised as you are!" Jak replied.

"Yeah, and what happened? You seem to be a little more pudgy than I remember," said Daxter.

"Hehe, everyone grows up Daxter, that includes dragons, though I'm still a ways away before I'm fully grown," Spyro explained.

"Don't tell me you're going to be so large I'm going to have to strain my neck to talk to you," Jak said with a grin.

"Probably," Spyro said shrugging his shoulders.

"More importantly what are you doing here? How did you get here?" Jak asked with utmost curiosity.

"Same as before more or less, I found an ancient structure inside some old ruins and examined everything I could see," Spyro began, "Only this time I didn't activate it, there were these strange dark purple creatures, unlike anything I've ever seen. They had this crystal, and it was emitting some eerie kind of glow, and they placed it into this compartment embedded in the structure, and the next thing I know, there is another blue vortex that opened up, and it seemed to be directed toward your world again."

Jak was astonished by what the purple dragon was telling him, exactly how many portals did exist on his world, and did they lead anywhere else? "Talk about a series of unusual events."

"Your telling me, but that isn't all of it."

"What do you mean?" Jak asked.

"The ancient structure marked many unknown inscriptions, but there was one identified marker, the Seal of Mar," said Spyro.

Jak was befuddled, the Seal of Mar? On a world other than his? Clearly there was more between these portals than originally thought. Not only are they apparently made by the alliance of the Precursors and dragons that predated them by about 4000 years, but they seemed to securely link between his world and the dragons, so their planets history could very much be intertwined with Spyro's home. Too bad Onin wasn't here, he would love to question her again, since she was the one who first helped shed some light on this subject before.

"The Seal of Mar on a foreign planet? I'm thinking I might have to take a trip to your world to do some investigating of my own, if I can," said Jak.

"We'll see, I would definitely be willing to give you and everyone the grand tour," Spyro replied before asking a serious question. "By the way what was that that happened before with you? You seemed to be levitating, and you were surrounded by a blue light, and I could sworn I heard the statue talking!"

"Let's just say I've been endowed with some new tricks, and I have no idea how many more may be coming," Jak explained.

"Does it have anything to do with your," Spyro slowly spoke while thinking the right way to ask this question, "other powers? From Dark Eco?"

"You could say that, though I think I've just been given a counterbalance to them," Jak replied.

Spyro nodded in understanding, he was well aware of Jak's dark eco powers. How it turned him from a mild mannered warrior into a fiercely aggressive and terrifying creature. He had seen first-hand the kind of damage that creature could do, and the last thing he wanted was to be an enemy to it. Though he remembered how much that particular ailment was what made him and Jak quick friends, how they both had to struggle with an inner darkness that threatened to consume them if they weren't careful. Never the less, the fact that they had shared a similar pain granted them mutual respect for each other. He also wondered if Jak's dark side could be counterbalanced, could his be as well? He had often talked to Ignitus about ridding himself of this turmoil, but he never asked if it could be balanced. Honestly, Spyro would love nothing more than to just get rid of it all together, for the last thing he had ever wanted was more power. He was already a purple dragon, granting him more powers than any dragon alive, though he wished that wasn't the case. Getting back on topic, Jak decided to ask a question.

"So where is this portal that brought you here?"

"It's over on the other side of the statue," said Spyro, "against the wall of a small chamber."

"Show me"

"No problem," Spyro said as he took flight, he hovered above Jak for a moment allowing him to grab on to his legs for the ride. Spyro flew around the statue with Daxter clinging to Jak's shoulder to prevent him from falling off. Honestly he wanted to get out of this temple sooner rather than later, unfortunately business came first in this case, and Jak didn't want to leave here without every question answered. The chamber was within sight, and Spyro lowered down so Jak could jump onto the platform. He landed as well and all of them walked into the chamber, and there it was, the large archway that had transported Spyro, now dormant. Jak analyzed the whole structure of the archway, seeing if anything peculiar stood out. But as far as some ancient Precursor runes outlining the full scale of it, there was nothing that stood out.

Spyro knew what to look for, the same chamber the aliens had opened up, he was currently searching for a similar mechanism on this one, though nothing seemed to stand out. Surely this portal should swing both ways right? Then again, he remembered that when he last entered the Armageddon Arch, that transport ended up landing him in the center of Haven City at random. However this time he came out through another arch, but on the other hand, the aliens had come through it before him, and they didn't end up here.

Nothing about it made sense, and Spyro was really starting to become irritated with interstellar traveling.

"Nothing seems out of place, and nothing seems to stand out either, did you say they had some sort of crystal?" Jak asked.

"Yeah, they put it somewhere on the left side, yet I'm not seeing anything on this one that remotely resembles that," replied Spyro.

"Eh just label it as more precursor junk, that stuff gives you nothing but trouble," complained Daxter, "it has been since day one, and it just gets worse."

Jak remained silent for a moment, then decided it was time to put it aside for now, there were other things to attend to. "I promise we'll look into it Spyro, but I don't think we'll be finding out anything today, lets come back when we have more information."

"Okay, lead the way it's your world," said Spyro. They turned to leave the chamber, Spyro took flight again and grabbed Jak by the shoulders. He flew slowly over top of the statue and back towards the warp gate that was waiting at the end of the walk way. Spyro asked something he was curious about since arriving here.

"Where are we anyway? This doesn't look like Haven."

"We are in a Precursor temple, on the outskirts of the Wasteland."

"Wasteland? Where we infiltrated the metalhead nest?"

"That was the another isle of the Wasteland, this one stands alone as being the largest," Jak explained. They approached the warp gate ready to enter.

"I'm sure you remember how these work," he told Spyro. The dragon nodded to him, although he was fed up with portals at this point, but Jak assured him that this was the only way out so he kept his bias aside at the moment.

"Been through too many to forget," Spyro commented. With that said, Jak and Daxter jumped in first, followed by Spyro right after them.

* * *

 **Setting: Dragon Realms Precursor Temple**

Cynder didn't waste any time returning to the guardians to wake them up after what she saw in the atrium. As soon as she had their attention, all of them and their pupils followed her hastily down to the atrium toward the open wall where the portal was still open. They had just entered the staircase and were moving down quickly but carefully to avoid slipping.

"Spyro fell in you say?" Terrador asked Cynder as she ran right ahead of them.

"Right in front of my eyes, he yelled at me to not come closer, and I honestly wish I could have been there with him, but I knew coming to all of you was the best option," she said frantically.

"Hunter did the same when you first disappeared, you made the wise decision Cynder," Terrador assured her.

"Man why does Spyro have to disappear when things finally get back to normal?" Sparx asked as he buzzed right beside the others, "If I didn't know better I say he asks for these adventures to happen."

"Sparx, now is not the time for your opinions," Cynder threw back, which of course made Sparx wince, she always knew how to irritate him to no end.

"What are we supposed to do when we get there? Jump in after him?" asked Jace.

"If we have to, though it would be prudent to leave a party here to keep watch from the other side," Cyril replied. The end of the staircase was within their sight, as was the portal, or so they expected. For as soon as they looked up, they noticed the portal was gone!

Cynder felt herself overwhelmed with worry. "No…no…no…it can't be." She ran to the wall tearing up, the others stood back, feeling it wasn't best to disturb her in her current state, though they too were disappointed as well. Cynder placed both of her paws on the wall, wishing the portal would reopen, but it was to no avail.

However, little did she know a small glimmer of hope was lying in the room, a small glowing shard that could be their only chance of reopening the portal.

* * *

Please feel free to comment, constructive criticism is a must!


	6. Chapter 6 Spargus

Before I move on I just want to clear somethings up. If you are familiar with Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, you may have noticed I named one of the dragons in my story Saphira. I am a big fan of the Inheiritance Cycle, read the whole thing from start to finish. Saphira is one of my favorite characters and I thought it was a grand idea for a dragon of Spyro's world to be named after her. Plus, if she really did exist in Spyro's world, I have no doubt that she and Cynder would be best friends. So I write with homage to the Inheiritance Cycle, and hope we can read more from Chris Paolini in the future. Moving on, here is the next chapter, hope you all enjoy!

 **Setting: Wasteland Precursor Temple**

The temple was now eerily silent, despite all that had occurred during the day, it was truly a sight to behold for the desolate wasteland. However, there were still many unknown secrets to the temple that had eluded so many, even the monks that watched over it. One such secret had been revealed today, the arrival of an alien in the eyes of the current planet, and he was about to step outside into the land he came to once before, hoping to make a difference again. The warp gate at the temples entrance began to glow and spin faster as the quarry inside started to emerge. First, out came Jak and Daxter, followed by their old friend, Spyro the dragon, an alien from a world far away.

Spyro took in his new surroundings, feeling a sense of freedom after being stuck underground upon arrival. The temple entrance was a large cylindrical structure, with sunlight illuminating from above, and he was wondering what else may lay ahead.

"Well, not too much different from where I came, it's almost like I never left," Spyro said.

"Yeah, well take it in as much as you can, because outside these walls there is nothing but trouble and more trouble," Jak replied.

"Yeah, if you thought Haven city was dangerous, you haven't seen nothing yet purple boy!" Daxter added.

"With all I've survived I doubt there's anything else that can surprise me," said Spyro.

"Hold onto that thought," said Jak. He started walking toward the temple exit, over to their left. Spyro followed behind them, wondering what this land may throw at him next, though he was confident he could handle it. The ground beneath them turned to sand as they stepped outside, Spyro could feel his feet slowly sinking into the earth as they continued walking forward. He noticed above him there was a large columned wall, which apparently was the real entrance gate to the temple. On the other side he noticed something that he really hadn't seen before, it was completely different from anything he saw in Haven city. It was apparently some sort of vehicle like the zoomers in the city, but it had wheels like a cart, and some sort of pressurized legs up front and a huge tube in back. He stood back observing it as Jak jumped into the driver seat.

"Climb aboard," he said.

"This isn't a zoomer," Spyro replied.

"Nope, it's a desert runner called the Dune Hopper, and in the wasteland it's the best way to get around, a zoomer wouldn't make it out here for very long," Jak explained. Spyro listened to his statement and finally climbed aboard in the passenger seat.

"I'd keep your wings down and fasten your seat belts," said Jak.

"Seat belts?" Spyro was confused. Although Jak couldn't believe he didn't understood what he said.

"Yeah, seat belts, that strap behind you that's supposed to keep you from falling out," Jak explained again. Spyro turned his head and saw the strap hanging from an opening in the vehicle. He was still slightly confused, but took the strap in his hand and pulled on it. He was now searching for where to place it.

"Ahem"

Spyro turned and saw Daxter pointing toward a buckle in between the seats, finally indicating where to put it. Spyro took a breath, frustrated that there was more about this world that he had yet to figure out. None the less he clipped the strap into the buckle and heard it snap. The seat belt was finally fastened around his body ready to go.

"Ready"

"Still a tourist, oy were gonna have to teach him even more than before Jak," Daxter commented. Jak could only shake his head, but he finally disengaged the safety and pushed the button to start the engine. The engine roared to life, and Jak finally pushed on the gas. Spyro held on for dear life and kept his wings closed as the vehicle began descending down the mountain. He noticed shockingly that there was a gorge coming up with no way around!

"Uh Jak…the gorge" he worryingly stated. Jak just kept moving forward but put his hand near a switch on the dashboard. Soon the gorge was 10 feet from them and Spyro could only close his eyes. Suddenly he felt a jerk hoisting them upward, and opened his eyes, the vehicle was flying through the air! However it didn't last for long as gravity brought it down again. They finally hit dirt and Spyro felt himself lunged forward, fortunately the seat belt kept him from falling out. As they continued forward, Spyro was thinking to himself, _'There are so many things about this world that I'll never understand, how I ever survived before is really beyond me'_

The ancient ruined structures that laid off coast of the temple mounts continuously felt the wrath of the sand blowing over them. The sand was just another hazard to Calidan, a hazard he faced every day out in the dunes. He had just reentered his home from his secret tunnel in response to what he had seen earlier. The Monk Temple seemed to illuminate a great light, and he had no idea what was going on, but he was determined to find out. He climbed to the top of his lookout tower with binoculars in hand, eager to spot something out of the ordinary. He kept his focus on the temple, wondering what could be coming from it. He stood there for a good ten minutes, although all he had to hear then was the sound of Robin snoring below him. Calidan still kept vigil, knowing that something had to happen soon, the anomaly had still only just occurred and this was his only chance for some answers. His patience was rewarded, he saw dust kicking up down the slope that led to the temple, and in front of it he caught glimpse of a desert vehicle, one used by the wastelanders of Spargus. He was trying to figure out who was in the driver's seat, it looked like they were a mix of orange and purple. The vehicle jumped over the land mounts one at a time, before making the final jump back to the main ground. As they approached the monoliths to take the path in between, Calidan finally got a decent view of the passengers, one was a man in blue attire, with some orange furry creature on his shoulder, and a large purple lizard sitting next to him. As they disappeared from sight, Calidan was akin to wonder who they were, only monks traveled to the temple, and the guy looked like a wastelander. That creature in the adjacent seat was unlike anything he had ever seen. Who were they? And what did they have to do with the anomaly earlier?

Jak pressed the gas a little harder as he drove around the corral which housed in the middle of the wasteland, he was going to make the cross to the other side which would take them to Spargus City. In the meantime, he felt it best to bring Spyro up to speed. He was telling of what happened since he had departed with his friends, how Haven city ended up becoming divided against itself and everything…

"So the metalheads and the KG are now controlling different factions of the city, and our forces are just barely holding on, but there is not much left to be honest."

"I just can't believe it, we defeated the greatest threat on your planet, and the city goes to war again? Will the cycle ever be broken?" Spyro asked.

"It doesn't look like it right now," Jak replied, while Daxter was remaining silent for once, having nothing to add to the conversation.

"What about Torn, and Samos and the others? Are they still alive?"

"Yes, everyone is alive, at least last time I was there."

"Why aren't you there now?" Spyro asked, while Jak was lighting off the pedal to tell him straight.

"I'm not there anymore…" he started while slowing the vehicle down, "because I was banished."

"Banished?! For what?! You saved the city! What incentive gave them the notion you should be exiled?"

"It doesn't matter anymore, they weren't satisfied with how I handled the situation before so they got rid of me, end of story," Jak finished sternly. Spyro chose his next words carefully, feeling it was best to not press the matter anymore he chose to return to the previous topic.

"So Torn, Ashelin and Samos are still leading the charge? That's good to hear, at least they still have a fighting chance."

"Not much of a chance, there's hardly anything left to protect."

"There has to be some protected parts of the city, what about the palace?" Spyro asked, though seeing Jak wince immediately made him wish he didn't ask that question.

"Spyro, the palace is destroyed," he said with Daxter dropping his head in unison.

"Destroyed?! That was the main part of the city! If it was destroyed," he was whispering the last part, knowing full well what it meant for Haven if the palace had collapsed. He could do nothing but shake his head, and press his eyes shut so no tears could fall out. He felt nothing but remorse for all the lost lives, he had been around too much death it was enough to make him sick, but then he remembered Ignitus's words.

 _"_ _Draw strength from others, and follow your heart, it will never fail you."_

Spyro felt so fortunate to have a mentor like Ignitus, he felt pity for Jak, having to go through this ordeal by himself. Although he knew Samos was to Jak as Ignitus was to him, but he wasn't here right now. Deciding to heed the advice he had been given and share it, he spoke again,

"I'm sorry Jak, I wish I could say I've felt the same pain, but from what you've told me I have not, so I won't pretend."

"I appreciate that Spyro, I do."

"Just hold on to what you have, there's always something to fight for," Spyro reassured.

"Quite the philosopher eh purple boy? Haven't heard much of that since old greenie," Daxter commented.

"Helps to have good teachers," Spyro replied.

"Amen to that, now it's my turn to teach you," Jak added, "we're living somewhere else now, and it has its own set of rules." They were approaching a large gate embedded in the rock just a mile ahead. The Dune Hopper kicked up sand behind it as its large tires continued to spin, the engine revving as the pistons inside continued their revolutions as was driven by the crankshaft. Jak hit the brakes just before reached the gate, and turned to Spyro.

"You'd better make yourself scarce for now, head up atop the cliff and stay out of sight, until I find out how I can introduce you."

"Understood," Spyro said with a nod, and unbuckled his strap, and then jumped out of his seat onto the sand dune. Jak pushed the pedal down again and drove towards the gate, which opened up in a triangular shaped manner on both sides to let him and the Dune Hopper in. Spyro took flight and set course for the left side clifftop right above them. As soon as he set foot on the cliff, he looked down to his right. He saw Jak was parking the Dune Hopper in the vehicle stable and dismounted. He looked up to Spyro, and gave a silent gesture, which the purple dragon nodded to. Jak approached the Spargus gate with his pass, and presented it to the scanner on the side. There was a hissing noise, and the gate opened up top and on bottom to allow access.

Jak walked into the city with Daxter on his shoulder taking in the scenery he was now familiar with, cliff carved homesteads with doors embedded in the rock, keeping the occupants secure and comfortable in their desert home. He walked over to a leaper lizard on the left, these wild creatures of the wasteland had been tamed, becoming the main source of transportation around Spargus. Jak mounted the lizard and kicked the reins to move forward. The lizard sped forward with its passengers and set forth for the middle of the city, where Jak planned to meet up with the ruler of Spargus City, Damas. He was wondering exactly how he was going to explain to the king that an alien had landed on their planet, it wasn't something that happened every day, even in the wasteland. He passed a couple wastelanders out on their patrols, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Perhaps he could simply tell them they had another exile, they were always open to newcomers, provided they passed the arena trials. Jak hoped if it came to that, Spyro would be able to pass, though given the purple dragons track record so far, he didn't think it would be a problem. He just hoped that he wasn't attacked as soon as he was revealed. He rode up to the palace entrance stationed in the middle of the city. However, he was greeted by someone else he knew in the city, and not in the most friendly way.

"Well, look who's back, the newbies in the flesh," the wastelander said.

"Still greeting with the newbie comment Kleiver?" Jak answered.

"You have a long ways to go pomper, so don't get comfortable," said Kleiver.

"As much as we're enjoying this conversation, we need to see all high and mighty right now, so let's save it for another day okay?" Daxter asked.

"Going to see Damas? You think you can just whaltz in whenever you feel like? Damas doesn't play favorites," Kleiver warned.

"I'm not asking to be a favorite, I just need to inform him, something has just occurred that could be of great relevance to him," Jak explained.

"Is that so? Could it be you two know something about the light show we observed earlier?" Kleiver asked. Jak and Daxter went wide eyed for a moment, and felt uneasy, it seemed that they already knew more than they thought. Explaining wasn't going to be any easier now.

"You do know something? Well then you better report it right now, otherwise I may have to leak that your holding important information, and he'll force it out of you otherwise," Kleiver warned again gesturing them to go ahead. Jak and Daxter gave him a slight glare before walking slowly toward the palace gate.

"I trust the Dune Hopper made it back where its posted?" Kleiver asked behind them. Jak entered the open gate and stepped onto the elevator behind it before answering him.

"Yes, just as you left it, and thanks for lending it to us, it came in handy."

"Like I said, don't get too comfortable, you'll end up worms meat if you do," Kleiver threw back with a chuckle. Jak gave him one last glare before the elevator lifted up. The lift only lasted ten seconds, in which time Jak tried to calm himself down, feeling the anxiety of the situation right now. The elevator came to a halt, and the two of them found themselves in the throne room.

"I see you boys have arrived fortuitously, I was about to seek you out myself," a scratchy yet demanding voice grabbed their attention. They turned to see a man in mix-matched wasteland armor and a crown embedded into his head, Damas the king of Spargus. Both of them gave a slight bow before moving forward to him on his throne.

"You two just came from the Wasteland correct?" Damas asked them.

"Yes sir," Jak answered.

"Then you observed the light spectacle that illuminated the sky?"

"Actually we were underground at the temple, we didn't see it," Jak answered truthfully.

"Well everyone here saw it, and are demanding answers for which I have none," he said walking down from his throne. "From the tower I observed the source, the south side of the wasteland, where the temple is located." Jak and Daxter were feeling uneasy, knowing where this was going.

"Since you came from the temple I will request only once, what did you find at the temple?" he asked sounding more like a demand. He was standing right in front of them with a strict look on his face. Shaking off the uneasiness, Jak decided to give it as straight as he could.

"We found something out of place at the temple, more like someone," Jak started.

"Someone? There was a being involved with this anomaly?" Damas asked.

"Uhh, you could say that, more like an out of place instrument," Daxter stammered before Jak could continue, "or just something that was thrown somewhere it doesn't belong, you know how messy housecleaning can be hehe," his nerves were getting the better of him, and was annoying both Jak and Damas, "but there is no indication it belonged there at all…" Daxter kept yammering on and on until…

"ENOUGH!" Damas yelled.

"Shutting up now," Daxter shrunk down behind Jak's shoulder.

"WHAT DID YOU FIND?!" Damas was feeling very angry having to ask twice, and Jak didn't hesitate to answer him.

"A friend," Jak answered. Damas's face went from angry to bewildered, he wasn't expecting an answer like that.

"He's a friend from far away, he visited us before a while ago, and he's made it back here through some anonymous circumstances, which I'm sure is what caused the light show you and everyone saw earlier. He's also looking for some answers too, and I'm sure we can help him."

"This…friend of yours, what do you mean from far away? Somewhere other than Haven?"

"More like somewhere other than this planet."

"What? You've brought an alien to our world?!" Damas seemed to growing angry again at the thought of an outworlder.

"Hey, I didn't bring him! He just showed up, and I guarantee you he means no harm! He's saved my life before, and even helped save this planet! I assure he means no harm to you or to Spargus, he may even help us," Jak finished with confidence. Damas was stoic for a moment, wondering if everything he had just heard was true, he had to decide for the good of Spargus, from what Jak told him if this creature could be of benevolent use for the city. If there was anything not of value in the city it would be discarded, for everything that was of use was for their survival, otherwise it was just like the sand that littered the desert.

"Bring this alien to me, and we will see if your words are true, newcomer," Damas asked.

"Are you sure you can't come to him? The people might get freaked out and try to shoot him," Jak stated.

"Yeah, he's already had a rough first encounter before, and you don't want him coming in with a grudge if you know what I mean," Daxter added. Damas looked them dead in the eye, making them wonder if they had gotten through to him. He was silent for what seemed like near eternity, then took a step toward the elevator.

"Take me," he told them. They followed slowly behind him, wanting to keep Damas in a good mood and not overcrowd him. They stepped onto the elevator and it descended. Once it was halfway down, Damas decided to give Jak a final warning.

"You had better be right, for your life may also depend on his actions," he stated. The elevator had reached the bottom, and the king stepped off, while the two heroes edged behind him a little uneasy.

"We can never catch a break around here," Daxter told Jak.

Damas, escorted by his warriors, which included not only Jak and Daxter, but Kleiver and two others named Krust and Bore, had just exited the main lock of the city. They came to a stop in the vehicle stable, and everyone turned to look at Jak. Without hesitation, Jak stepped forward to the king.

"Bring him in, now" Damas told him. Jak immediately stepped near the center of the vehicle stable and looked up to the right cliff up top.

"Hey! It's okay you can come down now! They want to meet you!"

For a moment it seemed like his call had been unanswered, they heard nothing answer back. For a moment they thought they would be ambushed by the alien, but they didn't know they weren't in any danger at all. There was a rustling up top, and they finally saw him, and were astonished by what they saw. A flying purple reptile like creature appeared over the cliff and was swooping down to the area in front of them. Bore and Krust readied their guns, but Damas gave them a wave to hold off. The creature landed and turned toward the wastelanders, feeling relieved that he hadn't put them off in a bad way.

"Damas king of Spargus, meet Spyro the dragon."


	7. Chapter 7 Arena Test

Here is the next chapter, hope you all have been enjoying the story so far. This is when Spyro earns his place in Spargus...

 **Ch7: Arena Test**

Damas kept a strong gaze, though he wasn't sure what to expect from this foreign creature. This was the first time a creature not native to the planet had ever shown up in his midst. Despite that, he chose to approach this the same way he treated every new visitor.

"So its true," he told Spyro, "an alien invader has come."

Spyro was shocked for a moment when he said, 'invader'

"No you have it all wrong," he started explaining which astonished the wastelanders. "I come in peace, and it was a rather unexpected journey."

Damas turned to Jak, "you didn't say he could talk."

"I thought I didn't have too," said Jak.

"So you're the leader of this desert city?" Spyro asked the king.

"I am, and I must ask, what are your plans on our world?" Damas asked intently.

"As of right now, I'm not sure, I arrived unexpectedly through an unusual series of events, though I'm relieved to have landed on the world of my friend Jak."

"So you have come here before?" asked Damas.

"Yes, last time I landed it was in a place called Haven City." His answer made the wastelanders go silent, and made them slightly uneasy.

"You are familiar with it?" Spyro asked, though at the same time Jak and Daxter winced, they wished that the dragon hadn't asked that question.

"Unfortunately yes," Damas answered with spite, which worried Spyro.

"If you have nothing good to say about it, then forgive me for mentioning it," Spyro quickly apologized while lowering his head. "I understand how harsh it can be." Spyro well remembered how rough the city was, he actually pitied Jak for living in a place that was war torn. Spyro's world was only torn by one evil dragon before he was imprisoned, ever since then things had been quite peaceful back home. Now he was back, though Spyro was hoping they would be more lenient than the Baron was. The last thing he wanted was another trip to jail.

"You seem to display humility in the presence of authority," Damas exclaimed. Spyro kept his head down and waited for the king to continue. He started walking around Spyro before speaking again, "An admirable quality in a being."

Spyro breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. "But that alone does not console me," said Damas. "Out here the presence of strangers can be of great benefit, or a great threat, seeing how this is the first time we have encountered an extraterrestrial, it will be a trial to remember."

"Trial sir?" Spyro asked.

"You will be tried like all who walk to our doors for the first time, entered into the arena, if you are worthy and of use to us, you will fight for your survival, and live."

"Fight for my survival? With all due respect your highness, I'd prefer to prove myself without violent action," Spyro explained hastily, "Is there an alternative way I can be tried?"

Damas kept silent as he continued pacing around the dragon, meanwhile Jak and Daxter watched with concern, as far as they knew no one had ever asked Damas for an alternative means of trial, and were worried Damas might be offended by it.

"The trial stands," Damas said walking back toward his men, while Spyro lifted up his head in shock, feeling dejected.

"The arena will open momentarily, as a fellow newcomer, Jak will escort you to the stage, and I suggest you not dawdle." Having finished speaking, the king and his followers exited through the city door. Jak approached Spyro, who was still unsettled at the kings lack of reprimand.

"Did he just completely shut me out?" Spyro asked.

"Damas does not give leniency to anyone, regardless of their ethics or morals," said Jak.

"Just be glad he didn't imprison ya," added Daxter, "I thought he would go gun-ho in the presence of an alien."

"I guess," said Spyro, "I have fought to protect myself and my friends on several occasions, but never for my own survival just to prove my worth."

"Well its set in stone Spyro," said Jak. "For your well-being, you can't hold back, these guys will fight for one thing, to kill you. They don't take prisoners, and they don't show constraint to anyone, do you understand?"

"Yes," he said with unease. Jak nodded to his reply and led the way to the city lock. Approaching the lock, he presented his pass to the scanner and the door opened on top and bottom. Jak entered the city followed closely by Spyro, who started to take in his new surroundings. The buildings were constructed out of the mountain rock, and it seemed strikingly familiar to Warfang, the Dragon city back home. The people however were more than different. Upon entering, Spyro's presence was starting to turn a few heads. Spyro merely followed Jak as he led him to the arena, Spyro was hoping to not intimidate the wastelanders, especially since they were carrying guns. A couple even holstered their arms as he walked by, forcing Spyro to move alongside Jak as they continued their trek. They passed through the middle of the city, where a water well was stationed for the citizens. The trio approached the mammoth steps which led to the arena, and Damas guards from before, Krust and Bore were awaiting them.

"The king expects you at once alien, now go," Krust said while standing aside. Jak and Spyro looked at each other for a brief moment, before marching ahead up the steps. It was quite a long trek, Spyro was considering flying all the way up to the top, but thought it best to not leave Jak behind as he was his guide. From the top of the steps, Spyro gazed at the city from another point of view, he immediately thought to himself that this city was to this planet like Warfang was to his. Spyro then looked ahead, and saw that the hall split in two directions.

"Which way?" he asked Jak.

"Doesn't matter just pick one," he answered. Spyro decided to take the right side as it was closest. They made a short turn to the left, and at the end of the hall, he was met with the wide open area of the arena. Spyro was astonished with where they were. Below was an active lava pit, it covered the whole arena cavern, which opened up to the open sea in the background. Spyro hadn't seen anything like this since the catacombs and the burning wastes. Wastelanders were gathering in the side balconies, waiting to oversee the next round of trials. They were unaware however to know that an alien would be tested this time around.

"This is the arena? A boiling lake of lava?!" Spyro exclaimed.

"In the wasteland it's do or die purple boy, or so they tell me," replied Daxter, "I know, it sucks doesn't it?"

" **People of Spargus**!"

The three of them as well as the crowds grew silent at the commanding voice from above them. Spyro looked atop to his left to see Damas sitting in an arena throne upon a cavern balcony, giving acknowledgements to his people.

"Another round of trials has begun! As you are aware, those who pass the tests are assured to join our fair city in the life of survival, but today, our halls bear refuge to a new kind of being."

The crowd grew silent in anticipation, and Spyro began to draw a sweat from his brow, and it wasn't just due to the heat of the lava.

"An alien outworlder has landed upon our doorstep through mysterious means, whether by his own actions or the will of the Precursors themselves, but he has assured me directly that he means no harm to our world."

Everyone seemed to be murmuring to each other, taking in their kings worlds and expressing their opinions on this foreign matter. Jak however nodded to Spyro in reassurance that the king was speaking of him in a good manner, which brought a sense of relief to the purple dragon.

"Alien or not, we will uphold the traditions of our city and test this creature as any newcomer, to prove his worth to us, or die trying," Damas finished while turning his head to look at the dragon on the lower balcony, who seemed hesitant to look him back in the eye. Damas gave a gesture with his gun to move forward onto the landing platform in front of him. Spyro turned back to Jak one last time.

"Go ahead," he told him giving the same gesture. The purple dragon took a deep breath and moved forward onto the landing platform. There was a physical jolt, and then the platform started to descend down toward the lava. Damas then turned to the remote device in his hand, one that was only to be handled by the king himself, and pressed a few keys. Everyone looked on to see the purple dragon for the first time, some were silent while others were roaring, though it wasn't assured it was belligerent.

Suddenly, the lava started to upset itself, and was becoming quite unsettled. Spyro looked with concern what was going on as he descended closer to it. Suddenly, a platform nearly as wide as the lava pool itself arose from the pool, marking the sign of a new round of arena games. The arena platform settled itself as Spyro reached the end of his descent. He paused for a moment, taking in the unease of the moment, and brushing it off as he flew down onto the arena. The platform ascended immediately, leaving Spyro on the arena floor, though it didn't matter to him, for he could always fly out of here. However, this seemed like something that couldn't be avoided, and braced himself.

Above, Damas watched with interest, as walkways rose from the ends of the arena and descended like drawbridges over to the cells below the spectator stands. Suddenly, a parrot monkey flew over and landed upon his throne catching his attention.

"Huff, apologies for the late arrival sir," he huffed, "Hoff! I was in the middle, Gasp! of my morning meditation, Phew!"

"By meditation Packer you mean nap?!" Damas exclaimed.

"Oh well, you know how it goes, you say tomato I say tamoto, it goes back and forth," Packer commented, though Damas paid him no mind.

"So who are we testing today?" the parrot monkey flew atop his shoulder to get a better view, and he couldn't believe who he saw.

"Raawwkk!" he screeched, "A purple dragon? It couldn't be, could it? Ah but who else could it be? Why didn't someone tell me that Spyro is back?"

"You know the alien too?" Damas asked.

"He tagged along for Jak's last adventure, though I don't know the full details, you'd have to ask…Aha!" he spoke upon seeing Jak and Daxter below him, to whom he immediately flew down.

"You two! Why didn't you tell me Spyro is back?"

"Can it featherbrain! We just found out ourselves!" Daxter yelled back.

"I hate it when you keep me out of the loop," Packer complained.

Spyro looked to both his sides, upon seeing the walkways reaching the cell-holes in the cavern walls, he was waiting for whatever came next. Damas spoke again over the sounds of the crowd and the unstable lava.

" **Let the trial begin!** "

There was a locking sound, and the cell walls opened up to reveal the dark caves behind them. Spyro watched slightly unsettled, until he heard something, growls and roars coming from within the cave. The noises started to show their silhouettes, and slowly they lurked out of the darkness, and Spyro was shocked to recognize the figures.

"GRAWWRR!"

The swarm of metalhead grunts stormed out of the cavern and raced toward Spyro. Jak and Daxter could only watch in horror as the monsters swarmed toward their friend. Spyro stood his ground against the first wave of grunts and immediately leapt into action. He jumped and then alley-looped over the whole swarm and landed behind them. The metalheads ground to a halt upon the dragons initial move. Spyro then went on the attack, clawing at the metalhead closest to him, and knocking it into the next one. He immediately spun around with his tail, knocking three other grunts away, lowering the count of the swarm that was still aright from eight to three. The three remaining lunged for the dragon, but Spyro stood his ground with a scowl on his face, and electricity slowly started exfoliating from his body.

The metalheads nearly had a claw on him, until he expelled an electrical field which encompassed them all, and then retracted them away by 15 feet. Spyro noticed another one about to strike, and lunged, grabbing it by the leg and spinning it around his head. He released it, causing it to fly into the lava pool, where it immediately incinerated. Another roar was heard, and Spyro turned toward the other open gate on the opposite side of the arena. The noise caught the attention of the others too, Jak, Daxter, Damas and Packer gazed toward the cave. Damas on the other hand knew what was coming and kept vigil. With a low growl, the creature stepped out of the cave, shocking the heroes.

A metalhead ram-head rhino blew steam out of its nose, and started lurking toward the dragon. Spyro didn't have to time to be shocked though, because the remaining grunts were starting to get up again, and growled hastily toward him. Before they could lunge, Spyro took a deep breath and spat a wave of fire toward them, incinerating four of them, while forcing the remaining ones to stand back. The king and his subjects were shocked by the abilities the purple alien possessed.

Spyro ended the flame having finished off four of them, but the remaining three immediately leapt toward him in rage. He ran toward them as well, dodging one and rolling another off his back and colliding with the final one as they grappled into a submission hold. All the meanwhile, the ram-head had eyed its target, and was pounding its hooves into the arena floor, ready to attack. Spyro was still pounding the grunt with his feet, forcing it to release, and allowing him to claw it away again. He turned toward the other two who were lunging for him again, and immediately shot out an earth blast, knocking them across the arena and over the edge into the lava. Satisfied that they were out of the way, he turned toward the ram-head, who looked ready to charge. Spyro turned toward the remaining grunt and thought of a plan. He jumped into a position that put him in between the grunt and the ram-head. With his wing, he then gestured toward the ram-head to bring it. The ram-head growled heavily and stormed toward the dragon with every intention on flattening him. He drew closer and closer, though Spyro waited for the right moment…Jak and Daxter were vigilant…the crowd kept watch…the king looked on…the ram head was nearly on top of him…and he jumped away! The grunt behind him gazed up in horror of the incoming ram-head. The ram-head ran and crushed it, putting it out of its misery.

"Clever," Damas commented, "His battle skills and cunning do not disappoint."

"Ha, I knew no metalheads were a match for purple boy," Daxter told his partner.

"Spyro can handle this no sweat," Jak added with confidence.

Spyro lowered himself onto the arena floor as he faced the ram-head again, who had turned around toward him again after crushing the grunt. Steam was blown out of his nose again as he prepared another charge.

"Come and get me beast," Spyro spoke softly.

The ram-head pounded its hooves once again, and charged. Though this proved no problem for the purple dragon as he took a breath once again, and with all his might, shot the largest ice shard he could muster from his mouth. The shard zoomed toward the ram-head who roared upon charge. What happened next silenced the crowd. The shard had entered the beast's mouth, and plowed through its innards and out the other side, causing the ram-head to drop dead during charge. Its carcass skidded toward the purple dragon and halted in front of him.

* * *

Review if you liked it! Happy Holidays everyone!


	8. Chapter 8 A Change in Scenery

Sorry for the wait, I've been trying to strengthen my creative spark, none the less I grant you the next chapter

 **Ch8: A Change in Scenery**

Dragon Realms: Precursor Temple

All of the dragons were working around the clock inside the temple atrium. They examined every part of the sanctuary from the largest relic to the smallest fragment, some clue that could lead to opening the portal again. Cynder was distraught, the sight of the portal closing practically broke her heart, knowing it was the only way to go to find Spyro, wherever he had ended up. She was sometimes actually tired of Spyro always having to be the hero who could save the world, all she wanted after Malefor was for him to be with her, living a life well together. Their last adventure was unexpected, and only laid out the foundation for another one, making her wonder if the cycle would ever be broken, or if they were meant to be adventurers for all time. Just when they thought they had scoped out all of the area, Saphira noticed something small glowing on the floor.

"Hey!" she shouted getting everyone's attention, "I think I found something." She walked over to the glowing object and picked it up carefully with her claws. It was some sort of crystal, shining an eerie purple, though not as dark as the crystals that once powered the Dark Master's weapons.

"A crystal?" Terrador asked.

"Yeah, it appears to be," Saphira answered. Cynder walked over and analyzed the crystal in her talons.

"I've seen dark crystals before, and this is nothing like what I'm familiar with," she exclaimed.

"What do you mean? This crystal isn't domestic?" Jace asked.

"That's my hypothesis," she replied.

"Then we have something that we can work with," said Terrador, "Cynder, did you see anything else prior to Spyro's disappearance?

"I did notice some weird footprints next to Spyro's before coming down here, so something came into the temple with him or before him."

"Tell me," said Chloro looking at the ground a few feet away, "Did the track look like this?" The guardians walked over to his side followed by Cynder, they looked down to see the track, long and two-toed, just like what she saw upstairs.

"That's it," Cynder said.

"Then it appears we have visitors," Cyril added.

"Visitors of extraterrestrial origin no doubt, quite perplexing this series of events is," Volteer continued. Cynder turned to look at the crystal in Saphira's claws, she was going over in her mind of all the possible uses the fragment might hold.

"Finding these footprints and this crystal fragment in the same room is no coincidence, there has to be a connection," said Cynder.

"I agree," Terrador commented, "It must have something to do with that seal."

"I think this structure requires an immediate concentrated inspection," said Volteer as he walked towards it.

"Volteer we have examined that wall from top to bottom and found nothing on the surface," said Cyril. He saw that Volteer had put his claws on it and was slowly scraping the wall for some unknown reason. His claws went to the left of the seal, and felt it catch onto something that was closed.

"Perhaps the solution isn't present on the outer layer, but the inner layer," said Volteer. He had finally caught everyone's attention and they stepped forward to join him at the wall. Saphira put the crystal in a burlap sack attached to her midsection, which housed some of their inspection tools and findings. Volteer tried to pry open the wall with his claws, but found it difficult as the compartment wasn't budging. He gave one last heave, only for his claws to slip out and scar the section he had been gripping on.

"Ugh, we'll that was utterly ineffectual," Volteer commented.

"Maybe we should just blast the wall open, maybe the portals on the inside" suggested Vacu with some slight humor.

"We do that and we will assuredly lose the only chance to find Spyro, so no!" Terrador commanded.

"Yes sir" uttered Vacu.

"Always think before you speak young one," Terrador instructed his pupil.

"Maybe the crystal could do something," Chloro advised. He turned to Saphira, as well did everyone else. She reached into the sack and pulled out the glowing fragment.

"Well its worth a try," she said bringing the fragment close to the wall. She left it there for a minute and nothing happened. Everyone's spirits were distressed a little, especially Cynders. Saphira decided to try a different approach and push the fragment to the wall…

Shhooommm

An eerie noise filled the air for a second, catching everyone's attention. They were all wondering the same thing, did it work? Their inner question was answered at the sound of a compartment opening up, and they looked to the section Volteer had gripped on, and saw a small drawer open up. For a moment, they were speechless, until…

"Well well, looks like I'm right" said Chloro, "what do you think of that Vacu?" His fellow student just mumbled to himself under his breath.

"Thank the ancestors," said Cynder walking over to the drawer. "Saphira can I have the fragment?" She nodded to her and reached out her paw to pass it on, until Sparx flew between them.

"Woah! Hold on here!"

"Sparx what are you doing?" Cynder retorted.

"Remembering what happened last time since you apparently have forgotten, eerie ruin, spooky settings, weird magic, add that all together and we have a whopping planet hop with a side of extreme danger. Everything about this place is just screaming bad news and you want to pull another Spyro and disappear? Come on I thought you were the smart one!...supposedly" he said that last part under his breath.

"I know this looks like another interstellar transport set up, but the bottom line is Spyro is missing, and the only chance we have to get him back is right in front of us, so we must take this opportunity."

"I admire your tenacity Cynder, second only to Spyro, but acting rashly is not the best course of action right now, we can't lose anyone else to this portal," said Terrador.

"Perhaps we don't have to," said Cyril, catching everyone's attention. "Saphira, remember that special package I gave you?"

"Affirmative sir," she responded reaching into the other side of her bag and began digging something out. Everyone watched with utmost curiosity. They watched as Saphira pulled out an interesting package, it appeared to be some elongated object wrapped in burlap cloth. To their astonishment, they watched as Saphira unwrapped it, illuminating the whole chamber with its shine. They were in awe as they stared at another mystic gem.

"You brought another mystic gem?" Terrador exclaimed, "but how and when?" he asked because he had already brought a piece of the gem Ignitus had given them, and the rest of it was still in the temple chamber back in Warfang. Plus Ignitus was far away at the White Isle, he couldn't have made the journey here that fast.

"Believe it or not, this is the original one Ignitus gave them," Cyril said.

"What?!" everyone exclaimed.

"I thought that gem disappeared," said Cynder.

"Or so one might think young one," Cyril stated.

FLASHBACK START

The guardians were ecstatic to see Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, and Hunter return from their interstellar journey. They had showed up in the middle of a field on the outskirts of Warfang, in the wake of a blinding light originating from space and impacted their planets crust.

"It is a great relief to see you all again, and unharmed," said Terrador.

"More or less," commented Spyro.

"Where did you get those coverings by the way?" asked Volteer, referring to their armor given to them by the Underground.

"A little gift from new friends," Cynder answered.

"And before you ask where we've been, let me just say," Sparx started, all eyes on him, "you can talk to Spyro because I prefer to go back to bed and forget this whole fiasco!" He flew with everyone shaking their heads.

"As you can see he is relieved to be back too," stated Hunter.

"Quite, there will be time to tell us of your adventure, but for now, let's go home," said Terrador.

"For ancestors sake yes," commented Cynder. The young dragons started their trek back to Warfang with Hunter right behind them. Terrador and Volteer followed in tow, with Cyril about to join them. However he halted when something appeared out of the glimmer of his eye. There was a glowing object illuminating close to where the party had crashed down. He walked over to it to inspect, and to his surprise he saw before his feet the mystic gem. The very gem that was the source of their way home had made its way back with them through the portal. He was astonished by his find and picked it up in his paw, wondering what to do with it now.

"Cyril!" called Volteer, "are we returning sometime tonight?" Cyril nearly jolted at the sound of his fellow guardian, he knew they were expecting him as well, though he thought it was best this should probably remain secret for now, a surprise for later. Since they already had an additional mystic gem residing in the temple courtesy of Ignitus, this one should probably stay out of the city.

'It should be safe here, what harm can it do?' With that final thought he clawed away some of the earth beneath it and placed the gem into the hole. He threw enough dirt on it to make sure it was concealed, and patted it down flat.

FLASHBACK END

"I figured it was best to leave it concealed until further notice," Cyril said, "In the wake of any more extraterrestrial activities."

"You didn't think to tell us of this Cyril?" asked Terrador.

"It didn't seem very relevant at the time given the circumstances," Cyril answered, "the important thing was that Spyro and everyone else were fine."

"Very true, but surely you must have thought knowing about this was important as well?" asked Volteer.

"It was to be shown at the appropriate time Volteer, and now is the appropriate time," he said turning to Cynder, "Cynder if you mean to enter another portal, then this will light your way in and way back as it did before."

"I thought the energy in these gems was only temporary," she said.

"No gem ever runs dry Cynder, it only regrows and regenerates, if given time," Cyril explained. Saphira went and handed over the gem to Cynder, who accepted it with thanks. Meanwhile, Saphira picked up the dark crystal fragment she had placed on the floor again, and walked over to the drawer in the wall. She was about to insert the crystal into the drawer before turning toward the party behind her again. They nodded, giving her the clear to activate it.

"When you insert that Saphira, get as far away from the wall as you can, so you don't get sucked in as well," warned Cynder. She nodded, and then inserted the crystal into the drawer.

SHHOOMMM

The echo filled the chamber again as the power from the crystal fed into the portal. The drawer closed quickly, and then the real action took place. Saphira dove to cover by the wall, while the rest of the guardians and their pupils took cover by the wall as well. The Seal of Mar broke into two pieces again, opening up to reveal the blue swirling vortex underneath. Cynder, standing by herself, looked at it with familiarity, knowing she was about to make another jump across space.

"Hold on!" Sparx called grabbing onto her horns.

"Sparx! What are you doing?!"

"Hitching a ride, dangerous interstellar travel or not, my brother is out there, and I'm gonna make sure he comes home, so whether we like or not, I'm going," he argued. Cynder was about to swat him for his reckless move, but had second thoughts upon hearing his reasoning. She knew she couldn't talk him out of it, after all family was family. So she turned toward the portal again, picking up the mystic gem in her maw. The suction of the portal began to pull once again, causing the guardians and the students to grip tight to their footholds. Cynder on the other hand braced herself, and jumped forward spreading out her wings, allowing the force to pull her along. Then in the blink of an eye, she and Sparx disappeared into the portal.

* * *

The crowd was utterly silent at what they had just witnessed. This purple alien who had come to their planet through mysterious means was tested through the usual Spargus initiation. He had destroyed the entire metalhead swarm while barely breaking a sweat, though there was some slight sweat considering he was fighting above a lava pit. Not only that, he took down the ferocious ram-head with one attack, and it appeared the dragon could have gone another round. Spyro took some slight breaths, he had used a considerable amount of energy during the fight, but none the less he was feeling strong, knowing he had passed the Spargus test. Jak and Daxter just stood relieved, they had no doubt their friend would have passed the test, but none the less they were glad it was over. If Damas was surprised, he hid it well, this alien was clearly more powerful than he originally thought. Given his performance, he had no doubt he would be useful to the city, though he was still far from trusting him completely.

"The trial is complete!" Damas announced to the crowd, catching everyone's attention.

"This outworlder has proved himself worthy of survival, and having passed his first trial, per our traditions, he is granted passage to our city."

Spyro breathed a sigh of relief, believing he had now satisfied the king. However, the crowd seemed hesitant to their king's decision, and were whispering among themselves. Damas then turned to look down directly at the dragon.

"Spyro the dragon, come!" the king ordered, Spyro didn't hesitate to follow his order, and spread his wings to fly up to the platform in front of the throne. He was still a stranger to these people, and he knew there would be a lot of work ahead in order to gain their trust. He landed on the platform and immediately turned toward his friends. Jak and Daxter gave him a thumbs up, which he replied with a smile and a nod.

"Your bravery and cunning have earned you your first battle amulet alien," Damas said pointing toward the amulet piece sitting on the bench in front of Spyro. Spyro walked up to it to examine it, it looked like a round orange medallion the size of his paw.

"You must complete two more trials to earn your full citizenship, all the while, the city is free for you to wander, but take to heart these 3 guidelines, or else find yourself banished to the desert," he said sternly, causing Spyro to give him his full attention.

"One, you will follow the commands of your king until such time he is unable to perform his duties, Two, you will report any and all threats to the city, and Three, you will show respect to any and all of your fellow wastelanders, we strive to follow all of these rules to the letter to eliminate the prospect of corruption to our fair city, for in the unforgiving wasteland, we band together to survive, and a divided house will be laid to rest in the merciless desert."

"I understand sir," replied Spyro.

"With that, another round of arena trials has been concluded, until next time my fair citizens, we exit and return to our lives," Damas concluded. The Spargus citizens occupying the arena stands vacated their seats and headed for the exits. Though some took another look back, for they were still feeling uneasy about their king letting an alien into the city. Spyro took flight once again, flying up toward the platform where Jak still stood. He landed and Jak soon congratulated him.

"Way to go buddy!" he said holding his hand up. Spyro grinned and slapped it with his paw, and shook it, as they did in their last goodbye.

"Like I was going to let a bunch of metalheads get the best of me," said Spyro.

"If you ask me, that battle was over before the fight even began!" Daxter added. Spyro reached out his hand which held his new medallion.

"Can you hold onto this for now, until I can find some way to keep it on me?" Spyro asked Jak.

"Sure thing buddy," he replied taking the medallion from his hand and inserting it into his side bag. Suddenly Packer flew down and flapped right in between them.

"I see you continue to surprise in the most unexpected areas, but don't let yourself get cocky or you'll be buried out here!"

"Consider it noted, good to see you too Packer," said Spyro.

"Quite, though where are the others? You seem to lacking your usual menagerie," Packer asked.

"I…came by myself this time," Spyro explained.

"Oh well, at least at I will be dealing with one blabbermouth instead of two!" Packer added, leaving Spyro to realize he meant Sparx. Jak and Daxter shot him a glare for his comment, but he didn't even notice.

"JAK!"

Jak turned his head up to look at Damas, who still stood on top of the arena throne. "I will need you on a new mission, meet me in my throne room for the full details." He nodded, but then immediately turned to Spyro, he knew he couldn't wander the streets by himself, despite the kings recognition. He quickly thought and requested aloud, "Can Spyro accompany me?"

His question caused the king to turn toward him bewildered. "I believe its best he remain with me, he is still a stranger around here, and I'll take full responsibility for him."

Spyro felt a welcome sense of relief, he as well didn't think he could roam the streets of Spargus by himself, he had already seen the citizens take of him, it reminded him too much of Haven City. The last thing he wanted was to make a bad impression, especially because these citizens didn't seem to be pushovers. Damas appeared to be stagnant, Jak hoped he was thinking it over, rather than drag out a decline of Jak's proposition.

"Very well, he may accompany you, but keep him under your watch at all times," Damas ordered. Jak bowed his head in respect to the king, as he exited the arena throne. Spyro immediately turned to Jak, feeling like he was being fortified against.

"Under your watch at all times? Have I not proven that I can take care of myself in front of him? Or does he still not trust me yet?" Spyro asked his friend.

"I'm inclined to think the latter, but he has given you free passage into the city, so that's a welcome relief," said Jak.

"Well I best follow him, as his personal advisor he may need my wisdom to determine his next motion," Packer bragged before flying up toward the arena throne and behind the curtain in back.

"Advisor?" asked Spyro bewildered.

"Don't ask please," Daxter said dryly, "let's just go see all high and mighty before his feathered advisor molts his feathers!" he finished that last sentence with disdain. They all turned toward the exit to leave the arena. They both walked through the hallway and out into the open area of the city. The arena steps lay at their feet, and they started walking down the steep decline onto the sand below. Already, citizens were staring their way, the sight of the purple dragon making them feel uneasy. Spyro could feel the eyes on him, and was feeling nervous. Now that he had revealed his strength to them, they were more on edge, but he was more determined than ever to prove that he meant no harm to them. As they set foot on the sand they walked side by side, heading for the palace. Spyro tried giving a friendly nod to some citizens as they passed by, though they retaliated with a growling snare, causing him to retract and focus ahead. They reached the palace door, and Krust and Bore were awaiting them. However, they blocked the entrance with their guns.

"Damas asked for us, let us pass," Jak declared.

"The alien is not allowed inside," Krust stammered.

"Damas allowed me to accompany Jak, and insisted I stay with him," replied Spyro.

"You will speak when spoken too alien!" Bore roared pointing his gun at Spyro's head.

"HEY!" Jak yelled pushing the gun away, "Like he said he's with me! If you're looking to start a problem, take it up with Damas, though I don't think he'll be lenient given that your breaking rule#3!"

"The alien is not a citizen of Spargus yet," said Krust.

"The alien has a name!" yelled Jak, "It's Spyro! And like I said, take your animosity to Damas, because I don't think he'll be pleased!" The two of them gave each other a blank stare and retracted their guns. Jak turned to Spyro and gave him a nod gesturing him to move forward. The both of them entered the elevator, and the door shut in front of them.

"Less we see of them, the better," Jak commented, which Spyro responded with a nod. The elevator approached the top and was starting to slow down. Once it came to a halt, Spyro took in the new surroundings. It was a large chamber, and it seemed to rise up and collapse at the tip far above his head. There were large windows that surrounded the room on all sides, and there was a small walkway which led toward the north end of the room with water channels surrounding them. At the end of the walkway, Spyro spotted Damas sitting on the throne, with Packer sitting right beside him. They stepped off the elevator to walk ahead, and as soon as they did, it started descending again. They watched the elevator leave for a moment, and then Jak approached the king swiftly but calmly, bowing his head in respect, with Spyro following his lead.

"Good of both of you to come immediately, time is of the essence," said Damas.

"I'm honored that you accept me your majesty, and I promise I will not hinder your trust of me," Spyro replied.

"We're ready for whatever you have," finished Jak.

"Not too far from here, there is a nest of metalpedes, they have been pestering our wasteland forces sporadically," Damas said standing up and walking toward them, "I want you and one of my spies to drive our Gila Stomper into the heart of the nest and eliminate all the eggs and creatures you find inside."

"So were eliminating more metalheads?" asked Spyro, "I'm sure it won't be a problem your highness, I've already proven I can handle them."

"Beware purple dragon, these desert metalheads are unlike anything you have faced, caution is well demanded."

"I suggest you listen to his royal highness!" squawked Packer, "It's what kept you alive so far."

"Can it beaky! We can handle a few metal mongers, so where is this spy were tagging along?" asked Daxter.

"He's on his way here now," Damas answered pointing with his staff toward the elevator, which was now lifting itself again. They all turned toward to see the lift reaching its end, wondering who it would be. Once it reached its peak, the figure revealed himself, and it was to their shock!

"Well well, I heard there were newcomers around, but I never would have guessed it was you cherries!"

"SIG!" Jak, Daxter and Spyro cried together.

"Hey boys! great to see all of you still fighting the good fight."

"Sig, I heard you were dead!" Spyro exclaimed.

"Well happy to disappoint you," Sig replied.

"Not at all!"

"What are you doing here?" Jak asked.

"What's all this spy talk we heard about?" asked Daxter.

"In order, I'm earning my keep, and the next part is a long story," he said feeling hesitant, "I'll tell you later."

"Well, now that the reunion is over, you have business to attend!" Packer squawked, "time to go!"

"Indeed, it is best to take care of your mission now, before…"

SHHOOOMMM!

A blinding flash assaulted their eyes, causing them to clinch them close. The light was so intense it nearly gave them a headache. The light started to die down, allowing them to slowly open their eyes again. Damas immediately turned to the window, and saw it for the second time today, a blinding light from the south side of the wasteland.

* * *

I can't say much yet, just brace yourselves, because the climatic scenes are just around the corner, I'm already working on the next chapter now.


	9. Chapter 9 An Unexpected Encounter

Chapter 9 is here, hope you all enjoy and review!

* * *

Patience, that was the key to completing any project, whether it be small or large. Patience was something that Calidan had to learn if he was to make it out in the desert. His daily routine of scouting and foraging complete, he retreated to his workbench to envelop himself in his newest tech project. At least as much of it that he could complete, he was still missing the two critical pieces, a stabilizer and a power source. He was akin to wonder if it would ever be complete, there was only so much he could find out in the desert. None the less he was determined to get as far with it as he could, and every little bit helped. He did find some small critical connectors scavenged from a Marauder camp that would suit for a linking assemblage on the new toy just fine, and was busy connecting them one at a time. It was somewhat tedious, but it was how Cal entertained himself.

SHHHOOOMMM!

He dropped everything he was holding and it fell with a clang as he was startled with a blinding flash illuminating his entire home, it even startled Robin from his nap as he awoke with a hiss. Cal shielded his face from the illumination, mainly since it was feeding in from his lookout tower. He knew this was no coincidence, this phenomenon happening twice in one day.

"Not again! That's it, no more waiting around, I'm investigating this immediately." The light was beginning to die down as he put down his tools and immediately turned toward his gearbag and Omega Fire on the floor. He ruffled his brown hair as he put both of them over his shoulders and dropped his bandanna and goggles over his face. His green eyes were stern with determination underneath the protective film.

"Mrowr"

"You stay here Rob, hold down the fort, and here," he quickly ran up the steps to the kitchen and opened the cupboard where he kept all of his leftover food. He reached into the salt bin on the bottom and picked out a few kanga rat carcasses. He then picked up a pitcher on the shelf with fresh water. He ran back down the steps and poured the water in Robins bowl and the carcasses right in front of him.

"There, that should suffice you till I get back, just stay out of trouble okay?"

"MrrowMrrow"

"Yeah I know, look who I'm talking too," he chuckled. With that done, he headed for his main entrance. He pulled out the controller from his belt and pressed the button. The hangar door lifted open slowly with a groan, until it was high enough for Calidan to clear. He walked out onto the dune and pressed the button again, sealing his home. He turned toward the temple, stagnant now that the light had passed.

"Well I certainly hope curiousity doesn't kill the cat and I end up metal meat while searching the place, huh, good thing I never use that line around Robin."

* * *

The illuminating light had finally passed, and the party present in the Spargus city palace tower could only look out the window again in shock, for they never expected to see two similar ethereal events occur in the same day, it was rare if not impossible even in the wasteland. The purple dragon broke the eerie silence.

"What was that?" asked Spyro.

"It appears we have yet another extraordinary event happening today, and given the fact that it has taken place at the moment of your presence here, I do not believe in coincidence," Damas replied.

"Damas, you mean that light?" asked Jak.

"Came from the temple? Yes" he replied again.

"The portal, someone has come through the portal again!" exclaimed Spyro.

"Perhaps after you purple dragon," said Damas.

"I have to go, they must be searching for me, if it pleases you your majesty, I will go investigate this and settle it," stated Spyro.

"You are free to do as you wish, but if your actions bring forth disdain to Spargus, you will not be welcomed back here," Damas warned.

"I promise I'll take care of it, and I won't bring any ill toward your people."

"Well then let's roll chili peppers," Sig exclaimed.

"Not you Sig, I need you to seal that metalhead desert nest, you will take the Gila Stomper and destroy all the creatures inside, the rest of you set out for the temple, it is imperative we find out the causes behind these mysterious events."

"Well Sig, guess we'll have to put the team-up on hold, time to split up," said Jak.

"Alright let's go," replied Sig. The dragon and the warrior nodded and headed for the elevator, with Sig right behind them. They stepped onto the elevator platform and it started to descend. They eventually reached the bottom and they all exited out of the palace entrance. Along the way to the Wasteland lock Spyro was wondering who could have possibly come through the portal after him, his first guess was Cynder, seeing how she saw him fall through first. The other guess was it could have been more of those aliens that attacked him, and if it was true, then he better hold true his declaration to Damas, and keep them from reaching the city. He really hoped it was Cynder truly, and if it was, he was more determined than before to reach the temple and console her, since she must have been worried sick. The group finally reached the lock and Jak opened it with his gate pass. The door opened its maw, allowing them to enter the vehicle pen.

"Alright, back on the Dune Hopper," Jak told Spyro. He nodded, though he wasn't too thrilled in riding it again, he figured once they reached the temple he could jump off and fly.

"Well there is a metalhead next with my name on it, and it requires extermination, you three take care and watch each other's backs okay?" said Sig.

"You've got it, see you later Sig," replied Jak. He, Daxter and Spyro jumped onto the Dune Hopper and belted themselves in while Sig walked over to the Gila Stomper next to them, it was much bigger than the Dune Hopper, built nearly like a desert tank, complete a single guided machine gun holstered on top of the vehicle. It wasn't built for speed, but rather for head to head hunting trips, which made it the perfect metalhead hunting machine.

Jak started the engines in his vehicle and drove forward to the wasteland lock. It hissed momentarily, before opening right and left allowing them through. He hit the accelerator and the Dune Hopper and its passengers drove into the wasteland with Sig slowly following behind them in the Gila Stomper. The wasteland would be alive with activity today, given to the presence of the two vehicles, and their passenger's respective missions.

* * *

Calidan had almost reached the temple, using his makeshift line launcher he had built from scratch. It helped him get across the first few sea platforms, and was about to reach the final one. He reached down to set his line launcher on the rock he was currently standing on. He pressed a button on the back of the device, and a line shot out back into the rock. He pressed a button on the opposite side and another line shot out in front of him, it flew until it made contact with the rock that stood as the foundation for the Precursor Monk temple. The grapple gripped firm, and he jumped down so he was hanging above the sea below. He pressed a button on the side housing of the launcher and flew across the sea toward the temple. His feet made contact and he stood firm. He pulled the trigger on the device and the grapples freed themselves from the rock and retracted.

"Now for the climb," he told himself, "guess I'll be getting my workout in for the day." Calidan started climbing the temple monolith hoping to gain some valuable insight into the day's events. This was the first time he had ever come this close to the temple, as he preferred to leave it alone. He only used the line launcher when trekking across wide gaps in the wasteland, mainly around the Marauder camp. Though as he climbed, he had to appreciate the view, he could nearly see the whole wasteland isle, not something he could see even from his lookout tower. He had just passed the halfway point up the mountain until a distant sound caught his attention. It was a rumbling hum, similar to the sound his Dune Striker gave off, and he knew what it was almost immediately. He turned around to look down at the sea platforms, and saw one of Spargus city's desert vehicles jumping across the sea platforms. He adjusted his goggles with his free hand to clear his vision and scoped out the cockpit of the vehicle.

"What the hey?" he asked as he saw the same figures from before, the blue cladded warrior, the orange furry creature and the purple lizard. The vehicle jumped across the final monolith and landed on the path at the feet of the temple base. He watched as the vehicle drove up the side of the monolith, and disappeared on the other side of the cliff.

"Well, looks like we'll have some additional company, this is turning out to be one interesting evening," said Calidan as he continued to climb.

* * *

The Dune Hopper made the final jump across the chasm and drove up toward the temple. Spyro was wishing he could have flown instead of ride, honestly riding in one of these desert vehicles was nearly as disastrous an experience as the zoomers in Haven City. Jak drove up to the column gate and performed a three point turn so the zoomer was facing down the mountain. Jak killed the engines and everybody jumped out onto the sand.

"Stay vigil, we don't know what could be inside," said Jak.

"I hear you, no matter what danger seems to be around every corner," replied Spyro. They started walking toward the temple entrance, Jak brought out his blaster mod gun as they approached the entrance. Giving everything that had happened today he was extra cautious, though he also had a sense of hope, since the same event had occured when Spyro appeared, he was sure whoever had caused this would be from his world as well. As they passed through the gate, Spyro made a quick scope of the area, to him nothing seemed out of place compared to his last visit.

"So, do we go back through the warp gate we came from?" he asked Jak.

"No, that portal only travels one way, we have to travel through the long way."

"So I guess we take the path in front of us?" Spyro exclaimed.

"Correct" said Jak.

"Well no sense chatting about it, let's get this over with," yammered Daxter.

As the trio walked through the front passage, another figure appeared from above unbeknownst to them. Calidan had just reached the roof and looked down to see the trio of strangers enter the temple. Giving what he just saw, he said to himself…

'This should be interesting, though giving these guys had shown up during these obscure events, best be cautious'

He pulled out a grapple and rope from his gearbag and took the grapple lock in his hand. He wrapped the rope around a sculpted monolith and opened and locked the rope through the grapple to secure it. With that done, he made sure his bag and his gun were secure and took the rope in his hands, he threw the rest of it down, and watched as it fell all the way to the floor.

Calidan was satisfied to see it hit the floor, and positioned himself to start descending. He took the first jump down, gripping the rope as tight as he could, and hit the wall with his feet. Feeling secure up top, he slowly descended further down sliding on his fingerless gloves to avoid rope burn. As he approached 15 feet above the surface, an unfortunate event was happening unknown to him.

The monolith above was starting to crack, the weight starting to cripple it. That along with perhaps centuries of age was making it crumble. The crack was starting high in the back and slowly started creeping around the base. Calidan was ignorant however, as he almost reached the bottom. However, it caught his attention as he felt a jolt through the rope, followed by a low crraacck...causing him to look up in alarm

"Oh no"

The crack had reached its limit, and the monolith collapsed into the large canopy below. Calidan let go of the rope and fell feet first to the floor. He hit the bottom flexing his knees upon impact. He looked up in horror to see the monolith approaching bottom, and braced himself at the last second…

CRRAAAASSSSHHH!

* * *

The sound from the impact echoed throughout the temple causing the trio of Jak, Spyro and Daxter to halt their advance. They had just reached the junction atrium where two doors were present and a dark Precursor idol was mounted by the back wall.

"Okay, I'm not the only one who heard that right?" asked Daxter.

"It came from above," said Spyro.

"The upper atrium," replied Jak. They all turned around to the hallway they had just exited from, it was vacant, no sign of any abnormality, at least yet. They considered their options, they could ignore the sudden impact from above and move ahead, or they could backtrack and see what caused it in the first place. Jak pondered over the decision, and came to a conclusion.

"Let's go back, maybe whoever showed up found a way to the surface," said Jak pulling out his blaster for safe closure.

"Or something else, either way I agree lets go," replied Spyro. They turned around to head back through the hallway and up toward the entrance again.

Calidan stood up as the dust settled from the monoliths collapse, a pile of rubble in the middle of the floor was all that was left of it. He pushed the rope aside, as the remainder of it collapsed to the floor. He shook the cobwebs from his head to clear his vision.

"Great, now I've ticked off the monks," he said, "They'll have my hide if they find out, I'd best just get out of here and….no! I came here to find out what is going on, two brilliant light shows in one day is nothing short of conspicuous, so damage or not, I'm going in and solving this mystery, though it may be the last thing I ever do."

He gathered his supplies that had fallen on the ground, including his gearbag and Omega Fire. He holstered both belongings before he set eyes on the entrance gate once more. He walked over to it and took his first step inside. He kept close to the right side wall since he noticed at the end there was a staircase to the right, and figured stealth was top priority now. He kept close to the wall as he neared the end, but something immediately caught his attention, silhouettes on the wall opposite the staircase were showing and growing larger. Someone or something was coming up the stairs! He immediately brought out his Omega Fire and gripped the trigger.

The shadows were getting larger and larger, Calidan waited for the right moment too...he leaped out in front of the staircase!

"FREEZE!"

"YOU FREEZE!" shouted the blue cladded warrior in front of him.

"DROP THE GUN!"

"NO YOU DROP YOURS!" Daxter was passed out on the floor from the shock of the moment.

"I won't say again! Drop it now!"

"I said you drop yours!"

Spyro had had enough, he jumped between the two of them and through up an electrical shield, which slightly stunned their hands, causing them to drop their weapons.

"Enough!" Spyro said to both of them, "Let's just calm down, we can work this out, no need for any force."

"Force?" asked Jak, "He practically forced my hand, he was the one who shouted and aimed first!"

"Me first? You guys are the ones who had shown up when everything started going crazy, sorry if I'm being a little defensive!"

"You haven't seen me defensive yet, though keep talking you're getting real close!" yelled Jak

"Don't push me punk"

"Who are you? A wastelander from Spargus? What in the world are you doing in here?"

"A wastelander tried and true, but I answer to no one! I'm here to get you guys to answer my questions."

"Your questions? You haven't even answered mine, WHO ARE YOU?

"That's need to know!"

"Well I do need! Now talk!"

"ENOUGH!" yelled Spyro, silencing everyone, including Daxter who had finally regained consciousness. "This arguing is pointless, we just need to breathe a little air here."

"I just want answers from both of you."

"Yeah, and pointing a gun at us is supposed to help?" asked Jak angrily.

"Works for the Marauders"

"We're no Marauders!"

"Jak enough! None of this is helping," Spyro cut in, "You want answers? I'll start, my name is Spyro, and this is Jak, we've come from Spargus."

"Spargus? Since when have there been purple lizards indigenous to Spargus?"

"I'm not from around here, but my friend Jak here is, and we came here because this place holds the secret to my being here."

"An alien? Well that's a first, even out here."

"As I've said, my name is Spyro, and you are?" The warrior hesitated for a moment, glancing at Jak, who was looking intently. It seemed to convey the attitude of 'you better tell your name since you know ours'

"Calidan, Cal for short"

"Good to meet you Calidan," said Spyro with a nod.

"Yeah, been a real pleasure," added Jak.

"Could have been worse itchy fingers," Calidan told him, causing Jak to squint. Spyro, having made the conversation much more inviting, decided to continue.

"So what are you doing here? Are you investigating the strange light?"

"Yeah you can say that, and seeing how you guys showed up while both events were taking place, I'm itching for answers."

"That's what we're here to find too, perhaps we can search together? What do you say Jak?" Spyro turned to him. Jak was silent for a moment, not knowing that he could trust this guy so easily. His wasteland attire was enough to make him suspicious; he could be a Marauder infiltrator for all they know. Though he decided a quick question would be the icebreaker.

"Maybe, but I'd like to know what that loud crash was," he demanded.

"My entrance was uh...messy, how this place still holds together is a mystery to me."

"Better hope the monks don't find out, or you'll be in the sea."

"What they don't know can't hurt them right?"

"Well that's settled then, come on, let's see what we can find inside," Spyro finished, turning back to the staircase leading into the temple. Jak and Calidan grabbed their guns while Daxter jumped back up on Jak's shoulder. They glared at each other for a moment before holstering their weapons on their backs. Both of them turned to walk down the staircase after Spyro.

"So now we have another gun toter following us? Just when we thought we could be in pleasant company," Daxter mouthed off. Calidan grabbed Daxter from Jak back, startling him.

"Watch your mouth hairball, or I'll feed you to my wildcat!" Jak immediately grabbed Daxter back.

"What is this? Grab the ottsel day?"

"You watch it" Jak warned Cal, "he may have a big mouth, but he's my best friend, and anyone who hurts him answers to me!"

Calidan shrugged, showing that he got the message. They all kept walking down the hall until they reached the junction atrium again. They looked at both doors, wondering which path to take. Jak gazed at the door to the right, it was shaped like the Seal of Mar, just like the amulet he always kept with him. He walked over to it, Spyro and Calidan followed in suit. Once he was in front of it, he pulled out his seal and put it up to the door. Instantly the door opened up revealing another hallway.

"Now we're getting somewhere," said Jak.

"Alright," added Spyro, "let's see where this passage leads."

* * *

Cynder stood at the edge of the room which housed the gateway she had exited, observing her surroundings. There were the permanently placed Precursor statues sitting with their backs to each other.

"Well these statues clearly aren't of our world, nor is this temple," she said.

"Yeah, the blue swirling vortex wasn't enough of a sign," Sparx yammered.

"shush, we don't know if anyone or anything is in here, best we remain unheard until further notice"

"Fine, but that also doesn't include the fact that our way home has been instantly shut down!" Sparx added, pointing toward the portal arch, which had become inactive upon their arrival.

"We'll find a way to turn it back on, now let's find Spyro first, I'm worried," said Cynder

"For once I agree with you, let's go," replied Sparx. Both of them took flight inside the canopy of the temple centrifuge. They flew around the statues, and headed over toward the one overlooking the floor with the warp gate on it.

"Hey!" said Sparx, "Haven't we seen that thing before?" pointing at the gate.

"A warp gate?" Cynder spoke the obvious, "Elorin! Jak's world, Sparx were back on Jak's world!"

"You mean the guy with the light hair, angry demeanor and runs around with that orange furred rat on his shoulder?"

"Yes, though his name was Daxter, I'm sure he would take offense to your description."

"Aw who cares? So we're back where we left off last time eh? I hope this doesn't start with another trip to jail."

"If we can find Jak he'll definitely vouch for us, though I'm not sure where he could be, I don't remember seeing this place before."

 **Greetings noble creatures...**

The echoing voice startled them, "Okay? Who said that?!"

 **Your return to our planet is a fortuitous one, for we are in need of dire assistance.**

"Who are you? Where are you?" asked Cynder.

 **One of my physical forms stands for eternity in this room, and you now stand before it.**

She looked around and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, until she had an epiphany, the statues! She flew over toward the one she was closest too and landed at its base. She looked into the statues eyes, for they shined with a brilliant light, making the statue appear as if it were alive.

"Are you a Precursor?" she asked.

 **Indeed, you remember all from before.**

"Of course, are you the same Precursor we saw?"

 **That was a herald, as am I, we all strain from the true one.**

"True one?"

 **The one from whom all our lives branch from, but a story for another time.**

"Okay then Mr. Freaky," Sparx asked, "Would you mind telling us where my purple brother would be?"

"No need to be rude Sparx," said Cynder.

 **The purple dragon, he…is…here, reunited with his fellow hero from before.**

"Before?" asked Cynder, until she understood ecstatically, "Jak! He already found Jak! That's great! Isn't it Sparx?"

"Wow, agreeing with you twice in one day!" he stated, "I'll have to make a list."

 **Wait young one...** Cynder turned back toward the statue.

 **His arrival was not with precedence this time, there are other hands at work, it seems they are also part of the coming darkness that approaches...**

Cynders excited face was replaced with confusion and worry, the Precursor that had just told her that Spyro was here safe and sound was now giving prophecies of doom. In her experience, ill prophecies did come to pass, though not always as one would expect. Sparx was worried himself, not liking where this was going one bit.

"Darkness? Hehe, don't you think that's just a little dramatic? I mean, we just stopped one and that doesn't necessarily…"

 **Quiet**! Sparx immediately silenced himself. At the same time, the sound of a door opening behind them caught their attention. They turned around to see…

* * *

Sorry! cliffhanger I know, but this just sets it up for the next chapter so well, so stay tuned!


	10. Chapter 10 Temple Tests

I was hoping for more reviews, I am still moving forward with writing this story to the best of my ability, but I would appreciate some comments. Enjoy chapter10!

* * *

"Spyro!"

"Cynder!" he replied back with welcome relief. The two dragons ran to each other and enveloped each other in a loving nuzzle. No matter how far each of them seemed to stream across space, they would always find their way back to each other. That fact alone was known to both of them, for eternity. Sparx wanted to jump and give Spyro a hug, but figured it would be best to wait. Jak and Daxter standing behind Spyro gave a warm grin, seeing the two dragons in love reunited, though Daxter was trying to refrain from tearing up.

"Dax? Are you crying?" Jak asked him.

"No! just swallowing a lump," he replied, "A lump…of emotional baggage! WAH! It's just so beautiful! Sniff."

"Hehehe, good to see you haven't changed at all Daxter," Cynder said walking up to them, "Hi Jak."

"Hey Cyn,"

"Hello," Daxter followed.

"Come on give me a hug," she offered opening her wings. They both welcomed it, it was a true scene of old friends reunited after past time. Jak was quick to notice that Spyro wasn't the only one who had grown since their last visit. Breaking from the hug, he told her…

"You're getting bigger too? Oh man Spyro was right, you both are gonna dwarf me in coming years."

"Afraid so," she commented.

"Spyro bro!" Sparx took the moment to finally hug his brother. He squeezed his neck, causing Spyro to gag a little. "How many times have I told you to stop disappearing into mysterious otherworldly phenomena? How many?!"

"I don't know, didn't know we were keeping score," Spyro replied, "It's good to see you Sparx, and yes I'm okay."

"Good," Sparx said breaking away, "You know I'm sticking around until you learn how to stand on your own four feet."

"You? Taking care of me?"

"Hey Mom and Dad's orders, and I will not forget them," replied Sparx.

"I'll remember that," Spyro chuckled with amusement, his brother could be a mother hen at times.

"Hey glowboy! You gonna give him a bottle and a blanket?" yelled Daxter. Sparx immediately buzzed over in front of Daxter face to face again.

"I don't recall asking your opinion fuzzball! What about you? Still picking up after Jak?"

"I'll have you know I'm the only reason he's still around! So stuff it!"

"Oh I'll stuff it! And I'll mount it on a wall!"

"That's it!" The two sidekicks lunged at each other to attack, only for Jak and Cynder to catch both of them before they reached each other. They both wore the same look, it said 'Same old same old.'

"You know, we were hoping some time and distance would make you too behave a little more maturely toward each other," commented Jak.

"And boy were we wrong," added Cynder.

"What in the world is this?" the additional voice caused all of them to turn toward the door again. Calidan was standing there, completely befuddled with what he just saw. He literally didn't have a clue at what he had just gotten himself into.

"You guys, have to be the strangest dysfunctional family I have ever seen."

"You haven't seen strange yet mack," Daxter told him.

"Who is he?" asked Cynder.

"A tag-along," replied Jak, "and he's going to stay that way until further notice."

"Further notice? Didn't know I was under a restraining order?" retorted Calidan.

"Consider it established, I still have no idea what your game is, and I will find out," said Jak.

"The only game I'm interested in playing is the one that will feed me some answers," said Calidan.

 **To acquire the right answers, one must ask the right questions young one.**

Everyone was silenced, all except Calidan were now looking toward the Precursor statue. "What was that? Is there someone else here?" he kept looking around until he saw that everyone else was looking toward the statue. He was awestruck, the only thing that could make sense was… "You…you're a Precursor?"

 **Young warriors you have traversed much to all come together here, at the site where a powerful alliance will take place, for the fate of all that breathes freedom hangs in the balance.**

"Hangs in the balance? What are you talking about?" asked Spyro.

 **An ancient powerful force is brooding, and it has already set its sight on this planet, and I fear more will come soon.**

Everyone was baffled by what they were just told, but they knew it had to be something heavy to capture the attention of a Precursor, though they were also wondering what was it?

"Okay, enough of the cryptic mythic talk, lay it down straight, and no more riddles because my head already hurts too much from the other ones," said Daxter.

"I'm with the furry rat on this one," added Calidan, who Daxter winced at what he called him, "give it to us straight, what is coming here? Who are these creatures named Spyro and Cynder? And what do they have to do with what is going on?"

 **The answers you seek lie in a link between our two worlds, one that began a millennia ago, and has resurfaced after centuries apart.**

"He's right," Spyro told Calidan, "We came here to this world before over a year ago, and when we arrived we learned of a dragon, our species, called the Dragon Father, who formed an alliance with the Precursors to save their treasures from the Metalhead leader Kor, by creating a link between these two planets."

"Dragons huh? And you guys have come here before? Why didn't anyone remember until now?"

"Because the alliance was made centuries before any of us were born or could remember," answered Jak, "if there was any recorded history, it was well hidden or destroyed."

 **Well hidden indeed great warrior, for the records of the precursors chronicle all of time and space, there are so many stories you have yet to be told, but there is only one that matters now, while the alliance made between the dragons and the precursors saved many valued treasures and forged an ancient alliance that has dulled with time, it may be our only hope of stopping the one that predates it before.**

Everyone was stumped, and shocked at the same time, from what the Precursor was telling them, something was coming that seemed to predate the metalhead threat they had just taken on. Spyro and Cynder had learned that the original home planet of the dragons was destroyed by the metalhead legion, though they were never told of any other threats that were just as dangerous. Jak was wondering what it could be himself, if it was something that had the Precursors worried, he knew it must be serious. Calidan was slowly trying to comprehend everything he had been told, it was all coming at him at once.

"Predates? You mean before the metalheads?" asked Spyro.

 **Indeed young one, look above and bear witness to the coming of evil.**

There was a low rumble, and then just behind the statue, something was protruding from the center of the complex. It looked like a giant glass sphere, held in place by four protruding fingers. When it had neared the ceiling, it stopped, all eyes below gazed at it. There was eerie shimmering glow coming from inside it, but soon form took shape, and they could see what appeared to be a shining purple star.

"The Day Star," exclaimed Calidan. His response baffled Jak, who turned around to him.

"You know its name? I thought only the monks knew," said Jak.

"I've heard some of their tales as they scavenged for artifacts near my desert homestead, though I never learned anything else."

"What is it really?" asked Spyro.

"Do we wanna know?" Sparx asked him fearfully.

 **Behold young ones**

The image appeared to zoom in on the star, and a peculiar shape came into place. It looked like some kind of dark seed, the size of a spaceship, though it appeared to have appendages branching out from its body, and its color was an eerie dark purple.

 **The seed of our destruction**

"What is it?" asked Cynder.

"It looks like some kind of…spaceship," exclaimed Jak.

"What's a spaceship?" asked Spyro.

"Uh, a ship that travels through space," said Calidan who had finally walked up to join the group, who felt like he was stating the obvious, "you don't know about spaceships?"

"Dude," said Sparx flying in his face, "we hardly know anything about this crazy world you call home, so don't go smart-mouthing." Calidan just shook his head while the Precursor continued

 **We Precursors built many worlds across the universe, shaping them with eco into something good, and even forging new alliances with several species. All in order to work toward a universe of peace and equality for all, but we were foolish, the Dark Makers were once Precursors...**

Focus turned toward the star again

 **But their exposure to dark eco changed them, they began twisting worlds, conquering life, and dark ages ensued. Now the dark ones have found your world, and are coming to claim it for themselves.**

"Well ain't that just great," Daxter yammered, "we have yet another world threatening crisis."

"A whole race of aliens," exclaimed Spyro who was in shock, "that live only to conquer and twist planets with dark eco? Are we talking another metalhead crisis?"

"Spyro," started Jak, "I'm afraid this enemy dwarfs the metalheads by a large margin."

"I came here for answers," followed Calidan, "and I find out that the entire planet is about to be invaded? What have I gotten myself into?"

"I'm afraid this is beyond your control," Cynder answered him, "everyone is now involved in this, including us." She finished looking toward Spyro, who was feeling more concerned than ever. They turned toward the viewing globe again, only to see what appeared to be a pair of giant orange colored cannons.

 **There is but one hope left, you will find a planetary defense system hidden deep at the core of the planet, there is still a chance to save your world, and you all must prepare yourselves vigilantly and become armed with as much strength as you can muster, young warrior step forward...**

Everyone looked toward Jak, who noticed that all eyes were on him, and decided to follow along and stepped toward the front of the group.

 **Now is the time for your new powers to be tested, and undergo the training required to master them. Be warned, these tests will be extensive and difficult, and it will take a strong will to overcome them.**

"Let's go then," said Jak.

 **Your friends must step back, for this is your trial, and yours alone.**

Jak in response nodded to his friends, who responded by stepping back near the door they had just entered from. As soon as they did, they heard the sound of a low hum, something was coming from below the statues, out of the abyss they were mounted from. The entities soon made themselves known, they appeared to be levitating nodes of white energy and their sounding hum appeared to growing louder. Suddenly, the unexpected happened, and they both fired lightning bolts of white energy toward Jak which enveloped him! Daxter was thrown off!

"JAK!" cried Spyro and Cynder. Daxter shook the stars from his head, and turned in horror to see his best friend having the life shocked out of him.

"Jak! Get out of there! Its gonna kill you!"

Jak couldn't hear him, the bolts of energy were overloading his senses, but he took to heart at what he heard and struggled to keep his will to live strong. The agony continued for one minute while trying to yell the pain away, only to have it stopped immediately. The lightning nodes ceased expelling energy and then levitated down into the abyss from which they came. Jak's body was smoking from the attack, and he appeared to be twitching slightly, though he was sure if he tried to move, the pain would only worsen.

"What the heck was that all about?" Sparx yelled.

"If we all have to take these tests I'll pass," said Calidan.

 **Look into the light and find rejuvenation hero.**

Everyone stayed vigil, though still shaken from the test they were forced to watch, watching for any sign of Jak responding to what the Precursor had told him. Jak kept his eyes closed for a moment, and then opened them to reveal they were glowing a brilliant white. They something happened which stunned the watchful party. Jak suddenly started levitating in the air with his arms opened wide, and his whole body became enveloped in a brilliant blue and white glow.

"What the heck?" asked an astonished Calidan.

"What is going on?" asked Cynder who was shocked by what she was seeing.

"This, this is what Jak talked about earlier, his new powers," explained wide eyed Spyro. Jak continued levitating for a few minutes, with his furry best friend watching from below, who was actually stunned silent for a change. Eventually he floated down to the ground again, and then the glow dissipated from his body. Everyone was silent for a moment before Spyro asked, "Jak, are you alright?"

"Couldn't be better guys," Jak said turning around with a smirk.

Signs of relief shown over all of them, except Calidan who was still stunned silent from everything that had happened.

"That was weird," said Sparx, "but awesome! Man you are full of tricks aren't you?!"

 **You have passed the first trial, the light power of rejuvenation will be of great value in the future, but beware using this power, for it will also leave you vulnerable, use only when circumstances are fit**

The party was silent for a moment before Jak spoke again, "so what now?"

 **The first trial has been passed, but three more await, though you must be wary, though these powers may be all we have left to give, they are unlike anything you have ever experienced.**

Another humming sound echoed through the chamber, immediately catching their attention. Suddenly from out of the abyss rose another set of figures, they appeared to be spinning platforms rotating faster than they could keep up, a total of 12 were counted, positioned around the full diameter of the room, and located either in conjunction with one another or adjacent to one of the platforms the statues were holding in their hands.

 **Through the power of eco one can wield powers few can share, including the constant measure of time. Use this power wisely, for it is not something to merely trifle with**

Jak's body became enveloped in light again, astonishing the audience behind him again. He stood still for a moment, and then by instinct he crouched down and clapped his hands together. **BOOOMMM**! There was an expulsion of bright light, causing the dragons, sidekicks and rogue to shield their eyes. It died down after a moment, allowing them to open again. To their shock however, Jak had vanished!

"Where'd he go?" asked Sparx.

"Jak! This whole Houdini act is really getting old!" yelled Daxter looking around.

"Spyro what happened?" asked Cynder. The purple dragon was befuddled, though something that the precursor had said seemed familiar to him.

Unbeknowst to the rest, Jak was jumping across the first set of platforms to the left of him, though they were moving slower allowing him to actually jump across safely. All this was thanks to the power the precursor told him about, the ability to slow down time. With time being manipulated, he could now move faster than the platforms could spin. He made the final jump across the first set, and finally made touchdown on the first statue platform. Light dissipated from him again, ending the time manipulation. Almost immediately, the party looked to the left and saw that Jak had reappeared on the left side platform. But how? He seemed to appear completely out of nowhere!

"How'd he get over there?! He was just here!" said Calidan astonished while pointing to the step in front of them. Upon seeing what had transpired, Spyro finally came to a realization.

"Time, Time! He's slowing down time!" exclaimed Spyro.

"What? You mean like you?" said Cynder.

"Unbelievable" said Spyro.

"Say what?" exclaimed Daxter.

"It's a long story," followed Sparx.

 **You show promise young warrior, but mastery of time is not a simple task, show me that you can use it wisely, and this trial will be pass**

Jak closed his eyes again, and concentrated, illuminating his body in light again. He clapped his hands together again and vanished from the others sight. Back in his own time reality, Jak jumped across to the next statue platform in front of the next set of spinning platforms. He started making his first jump, and made successful touchdown, he continued to the following platform and then the next. He reached the following set of statue platforms and made contact. He then released the energy and took a respite. As he was continuing the tests, Calidan watched with awe, he had no idea what to expect next from these strangers, but they were clearly something special in the limited time he had spent with them.

'These guys have more than what they show, I wonder if sticking around would be good or bad for health' he thought.

Jak just finished jumping to the last set of platforms, and was about to make the final leap, with everyone watching the step in front of them waiting for him to show up. Jak made the jump, and just before he landed, the light faded and he resumed normal form. He staggered his landing, and took a deep breath, this test clearly took a lot out of him.

"You okay?" asked Spyro

"Just need to catch my breath, huff" said Jak.

"So you can slow down time too? You and Spyro share more abilities than you know," asked Cynder.

"What?" exclaimed Jak.

"She's right, guess we'll have to collaborate more," said Spyro.

"Fine by me," said Jak.

 **Be warned heroes, as I said manipulation of time is not something to be taken lightly, use it sparingly, only when circumstances demand**

Spyro nodded, he remembered being told the same thing by the Chronicler long ago. He wondered if the Chronicler and the Precursors were of similar wisdom.

 **This next test will be one of endurance, you must surround yourself with this form of concentrated power to deflect everything that comes at you, and when the moment is right…unleash it**

The same lightning nodes from before resurfaced again, everyone was weary from seeing them again, especially Jak. They started to hum as they gathered energy again, and also started spinning around Jak's head. Everyone stood their ground, though this was Jak's challenge, they didn't want to take any chances. The nodes continued to spin for a few seconds, and then the humming reached its peak. The lightning was released again directed toward Jak. He dodged the first two shots, and prepared for the next one. The node directly above him started charging again, and at the same time, his eyes started to glow. The energy discharged, and suddenly Jak glowed again with his hands directed up, emanating a shield which absorbed the energy. The shield was big enough to encompass himself and all within three feet from him. The others stood back slightly shocked.

"Well, that's a handy trick," said Calidan.

The other node spun around and started firing at Jak as well, only to be absorbed by his shield. As the energy continued to fire, the shield seemed to glow even brighter. The watching party were taking notice.

"The shield, its absorbing the energy!" exclaimed Cynder.

 **Unleash it warrior, Now!**

Jak's gaze turned up toward the nodes, they were still expelling energy, but his shield was still glowing brighter, until **SHHOOOMMM**! The concussive force blew the nodes away, and also causing the watching party to shield themselves. The glow faded from Jak's body again, as everything settled again.

"Wow, just wow," said a stunned Calidan.

"As long as I've known him, he's never been any weirder," said Daxter.

"You think I'm not freaked out myself Dax?" asked Jak, "a while ago I was still suffering from dark eco, now it seems so far away."

"Dark eco?" asked Calidan.

"I'll fill you in later," said Spyro.

 **Well done great warrior, your bravery and talent has served you well, though you will still require as much strength as you can muster to handle the coming threat.**

As he finished speaking, a light shown from above and enveloped Jak, startling everyone, all wondering what could be waiting at the end. Although, they were slightly surprised to see Jak being suspended in the air.

 **Prepare to wield this final light power, one which will help you reach new places, places only in your dreams.**

The light enveloping Jak grew brighter and brighter, causing everyone to shield their eyes. There was a flash before the light subsided, allowing everyone to open their eyes again. Once again, they were stunned frozen where they stood at what they saw. Jak was floating in air, but this time with large giant shining wings protruding from his back. They were slowly flapping as they kept him suspended in midair.

"No way," exclaimed a shocked Calidan.

"He's...flying" followed Cynder

"He can fly now? Unbelievable!" finished Spyro. The two sidekicks were silent with astonishment.

 **These wings will aid you in the coming battles ahead great warrior, but you must continue to grow in strength and spirit to acclimate them, for they are only as strong as you are.**

Jak continued to fly for a few moments, until he finally set down on the ground again. The light fading from his body once again, and he held his head shaking it slightly to rid himself of the fatigue. He looked up toward the statue again as it continued to speak.

 **Your trials are now complete great warrior, but these powers alone will not guarantee your victory, you must remember to surround yourself with those trustworthy, keep your friends close, for alliances are the only way toward universal peace.**

The viewing globe atop the statues collapsed back behind them, and the glow from the eyes of the statue faded out. Jak took a few deep breaths, finally having the chance to catch them again after the extensive tests. He turned toward his friends with a sense of recollection, that another mission was awaiting all of them just like it did last time, though he wasn't sure if they were willing to go with it again. He was sure they had had enough of adventure, like he had.

"Well everyone, looks like we have yet another cataclysmic incident on our hands, much to our chagrin," he told them.

"Well mark it on your calendars if this just became the most miserable day of your lives," said Daxter, "because it certainly became mine."

"Sorry," Sparx interrupted, "but are we ignoring the fact that Jak can now SHINE, ZOOM THROUGH TIME AND FLY THROUGH THE AIR NOW, or was everybody completely ignoring the show?!"

"I'm shocked to say the least," said Spyro, "you've surprised me more than ever now Jak, you might even have enough power to rival a purple dragon."

"Think so?" Jak asked with serious notion.

"No doubt, and if what the Precursor said is true, you're going to need every bit of it, as are we all."

"We? We?!" yammered Daxter, "Oh no! I am well passed my patience for danger thank you, I'm going to back to the desert city, where there are feasts fit for a king! Literally, I'm going to dine with royalty! And showcase my royal etiquette putting that beakbrain to shame!"

"Enough," demanded Cynder, "Digressing the situation won't make it any better, doing something proactive will."

"Cynder is right, we just need to figure out our next move," added Spyro, "Another threat is on its way, and it needs to be stopped."

"Wow," said Jak, silencing them, "I half-expected you guys to immediately disregard everything you were just told and go home and pretend nothing happened. Aren't you tired of saving the world? Wouldn't you prefer to go home and live in peace?"

"Of course we would," said Spyro, "but the safety of everyone we care about comes first, it always will."

"He's right Jak, and that also includes our friends," added Cynder.

"Meaning you, so we're not going anywhere, not until your world is safe again," finished Spyro. Jak was never much for sentiment, but he couldn't help but feel touched that they were still willing to help them out. It was great to know that even a space wide distance between worlds couldn't tear good friends apart. He was still a little frustrated with having to save the world again, but having Spyro and Cynder here again gave him good reason, since his old friends were away fighting for their lives. He then turned his gaze to beside them, where Calidan had his head turned around, apparently deep in thought.

"Hey," Jak called to get his attention, "You still awake rogue?"

Calidan wasn't sure how to respond, but he felt all eyes were on him. They expected a response to Jak's call, but the wastelander's stoic form had them akin to wonder if he was still deciphering everything that had been told to him. He had after all come here to collect answers, and he found what he had been looking for, though now he seemed more confused than ever of what to do.

"Calidan," said Spyro. "Are you ok?

"Ok? How am I supposed to take that? The answers I came for have turned out to be a revealing that a dangerous alien spaceship is coming! One that if makes contact, it will decimate the whole planet! And I'm just a humble wastelander, all I've ever wanted is to survive and thrive out here like the old wastelanders of the stories have done! So I am feeling a bit thunderstruck with everything I have just been told!"

"We know it's a lot to take in," said Cynder, "but we've had our fair share of adverse situations, and there's always a solution."

"Yeah, but I doubt I can be of any aid, I've seen what some of you can do and I can see I'm heavily outmatched," said Calidan hesitantly.

"There's more to being a warrior than powers," explained Jak, "There was a time when I didn't have any powers at all other than what I was able to channel from eco wells."

"I've also had to ask aid from my friends on my journeys," added Spyro, "They say I'm a rare dragon that's born once for every ten generations, but that doesn't mean I can't handle everything on my own."

"Sure, but what help could I be to you guys anyway? I'm just a desert man with a car, a gun and a cat," asked Calidan.

"Yeah, and I'm just a furry rat running around the desert without a pair of pants!" yammered Daxter, "but I'm stuck with this guy anyway," he said pointing to Jak, "so I'm going along with it."

Calidan gave him an annoyed look, and wondered if he should stick with these guys and see this through to the end. On the other hand, he had received the answers he came here to find, as disconcerting as what they were. Maybe he should go back and take care of Robin, and stick to his usual routine. However, he knew deep down that wasn't an option, after hearing the Precursor's tale, going back to routine wasn't an option. Even if he did take care of Robin, it would be the same as waiting for the inevitable invasion. For the second time today, his mind was made up.

"Well, I don't know if I'm up for it," answered Calidan, "but I have someone to look after too, and I can't do that with the planet in jeopardy."

"So you are with us?" asked Spyro.

"I am"

"Welcome to the team, I'm Cynder," said Cynder happily.

"Yeah welcome to the club," added Sparx. "The looney heroes club that is," he whispered to himself.

* * *

So the team has gained a new member, just wait because the adventure is just beginning!


	11. Chapter 11 Journey to Haven

**This chapter will help in moving the story forward, don't worry we'll reach Haven city soon, enjoy!**

 **Ch11: Journey to Haven**

The group of heroes traveled all the way up the elevated hallway that led from the statue room. They flew up to it from the platform they were standing on, giving Daxter and Calidan a lift since they couldn't fly. Though Jak was still reveling in the fact that he could now, it made him feel like a dragon himself. Still he had a way to go before mastering his power. The same as Calidan had to go before earning his trust. Spyro was always quick to finding new allies, preferring to gain trust early so there were no difficulties later on. Cynder followed Spyro's example, giving everything she had been through, finding new friends was great joy.

Calidan still was unsure about this group he had just gotten involved with, he had never had any real connections with anyone since his family disappeared, and never considered making any out in the wasteland. He had always considered the Spargusians the same way as the Marauders, though they were two opposing forces that waged war on each other in control of the wasteland. On the other hand, he had also never come across aliens before, or even considered they exist. Now they were here, one group was called dragons, an ancient race from across the stars, and the other group called the Dark Makers, a twisted version of the Precursors themselves that live only to conquer and enslave. Even though he had joined this ragtag team of heroes and aliens, he wasn't sure of what help he could be.

"So what do we do now?" asked Calidan.

"We need to get through the rest of this temple, and eventually find a way back to the surface," said Spyro.

"He's right, Spargus will need to be warned in order to be prepared," followed Jak.

"What about what the Precursor said? About a defense mechanism within the planet that could destroy that…that…thing?" asked Cynder.

"That's another matter, though honestly I would prefer to get out of here before thinking about that," answered Jak. As they conversed, they came to another junction, it was circular in shape, and had numerous pots stationed around the walls. Up toward the right the path continued through an open hall. They also noticed that it elevated up further, so they were getting closer to the surface. As they approached the top of the stairs, they looked up to see the wasteland sky was open to them.

"Are we outside now?" asked Cynder.

"Yeah, but not at the exit," said Spyro.

"So we're deeper into the temple?" followed Calidan.

Jak finished, "Yeah, however…"

"You are here," came a soft whispering voice. Everyone quickly turned to the right of the entryway they had just exited. A figure was hidden in shadow, though it appeared that it was moving towards them. Everyone else wondered who it was, that is except for Jak.

"Seem? Its you!" The head precursor monk appeared from the shadows, and the expression on her face seemed stoic yet relieved at the sight of the group in front of her.

"I remember you," said Spyro.

"You do?" questioned Cynder.

"She's a monk," said Calidan, having recognized plenty of them during his expeditions into the wasteland. He had always figured the monks had traversed the terrain more extensively then he had. Though the appearance of this one did not bode well for him…

"Uh, look if this about the mess in the atrium, I sincerely apologize for that, I was just following these guys, there was a crack and…"

"You speak many words," Seem said silencing him. "An unfortunate flaw for the youthful, for asking many questions without reason can boggle the mind."

"Say what?" asked Sparx.

"Don't even try, we've been baffled ourselves by her" mentioned Daxter.

"It is a welcome sight to see the dragons have returned to our world," said Seem.

"You know of dragons?" asked Cynder.

"Indeed, I have read the histories, though I expected you to be much…larger," she said, drawing sweat-dropped looks. "Of course you must be young, but great trials await you, and you must continue to grow strong to combat the coming threat."

"You know what were up against then?" asked Jak.

"I heard the ancient one speak," she said, "the approaching threat is worse than I could have imagined, even the precursors themselves require aid in combatting this terrible evil."

"How can we be of help?" asked Spyro.

"You must make the trek back to Haven City, and enter the catacombs, for it is there where the answer to our salvation lies," Seem replied.

"Really?" asked Jak, causing all eyes to turn towards him, "I'm not exactly interested in going back there at all, they did throw me out after all."

His reply stunned Sparx and Cynder, and she asked, "they threw you out?!"

"Yeah, I'll tell you about it later," said Spyro.

"That's what everyone else is saying!" yelled Sparx, "we only just arrived and we are completely out of the loop!" His tirade caused the entire party to look at him with shock or annoyance. "We fell through another portal, only to wind up on the same planet as before, and found out Jak now has these new weirdo powers, not to mention there's a so called alien invasion on the way, and we now have another addition to our group, and no one is gonna question how he even showed up and how this mess even started?!" as he finished he finally took a breath, causing everyone to sweatdrop.

"Feeling better?" asked Cynder dryly.

"Huff, a little"

"As I was saying," Seem continued, "you must return to the city now."

"And as I said, why should I?" asked Jak sternly.

"Jak!" exclaimed Cynder, "how can you say that?"

"I know you're upset about being exiled, but that's no reason to abandon the others!" added Spyro.

"What's the point of going back?" asked Jak harshly, "They'll probably just throw me out again."

"Young warrior!" Seem stated harshly, "You must not dwell on past events! It is time to focus on the current matter at hand, and it requires all of your immediate attention."

"All of us?" asked Calidan.

"Yes even you wastelander," stated Seem.

"Woah! Hang on a moment, nobody told me about going to Haven city, I've heard stories about that place, and journeying there is not on my to-do list," said Calidan.

"Hey, you can't expect to join our team and leave right off the bat!" declared Cynder.

"Like I said, I didn't expect going to Haven to be part of the deal."

"This isn't about what we want to do, this is about what we have to do," stated Cynder.

"She's right," added Spyro, "We've all had to step up and take more responsibility then what's originally asked of us, not because we wanted to, but because of what was needed."

"That's a lesson everybody should learn," finished Cynder with a slight glare toward Jak who was still fuming. He was clearly contemplating that he still was not willing to return to Haven.

"The black one speaks wisely," stated Seem, "In order to save this world from destruction we all must take a stand." Calidan was silent, he felt torn, he agreed to join this team because of his need to protect the planet. Although, he didn't expect to be leaving the wasteland, he thought they were staying here in the wasteland, where he knew he could help them.

"I still think my best service is here, I mean I won't be of any use to you anywhere else," said Calidan.

"That sounds like an excuse to me," replied Cynder with a glare.

"It's a fact!" argued Calidan.

"Only because you think that," stated Cynder, "If you believe you are no good to anyone outside your comfort zone, then you never will grow, in body or spirit." Calidan was stunned silent, he never had anyone speak to him like that before, he wasn't sure if he was being insulted, or if Cynder was actually trying to help him. Based on what he had seen and heard recently, Cynder didn't seem to be the berating type, and neither did Spyro. Jak seemed like nothing but a stubborn punk to him, someone who only appeared to listen to his own arrogance, and had his own share of anger issues. The two little animals seemed to be comic relief to him, and that was as far as he could tell about this group he had just joined. That matter aside, he took what Cynder said to heart, and he was contemplating what to do now.

"Haven't you ever considered what lies outside the wasteland?" asked Spyro.

"The wasteland is all I know," said Calidan.

"Maybe, but it doesn't have to be," replied Spyro, who now caught Jak's attention as he tried to back up Cynder in reasoning with Calidan.

"With the current crisis at hand, the planet must become unified, with so much at stake, we can't afford for anyone to follow their own selfish ambitions," said Seem, who first looked toward Calidan, and then toward Jak.

"What?" he asked.

"Your grudge holds you back dark one, you are more caught up with your vendetta against those who wronged you that you fail to see the more crucial situation," she continued.

"I have worked before for what you mentioned and accomplished it," replied Jak, "and how was I repaid? I was thrown out! If all I'm going to get for doing the right thing is animosity and exile then what's the point?"

"Working for titles and reclamation is for the weak-hearted," said Seem, causing Jak to silently fume. "Working for the greater good is the true calling for all sentient people, or are you too succumbed by the darkness to believe that?"

"You really know how to lift spirits don't you?" asked Jak rhetorically.

"Jak," said Cynder catching his attention. "Can't you see she's trying to help you? The same with you Calidan, you can't keeping hiding in the sands, it won't make your problems go away, it will only prolong the pain of not dealing with them in the first place."

"Pain? What pain?" asked Calidan.

"The pain of sloth and loneliness," she responded.

"Hurtful much?"

"Tell me I'm wrong," asked Cynder. She was determined to get through to him, she was quite good at helping others turn their lives upside down. However since she met Spyro, that skill had turned beneficial, turning people away from the wrong side of the tracks and serving a greater purpose, just as Spyro once did for her. Calidan was silent once again, he wasn't used to being prodded like this, and it felt like a stinging needle. It made him feel uncomfortable, but unknown to him now, it was for his benefit.

"Time is running out young ones," said Seem catching everyone's attention again. "In your best interest as well as everyone who lives free, you must proceed, but choose your first step wisely. The subrails to Haven lie right in front of you." She turned around to direct everyone's gaze toward the staircase at the other end of the chamber.

"I wish you all the best," Seem said as she walked past all of them and down the staircase they had just came from. She slowly disappeared from sight as she neared the bottom. The new union of heroes was now left alone in the chamber now, the path laid ahead for them.

"She's still as eerie and uplifting as ever," commented Daxter.

"She reminds me of a creepy cheetah I once met," added Sparx, "guess every world has one."

"Well, she said the path was laid ahead for us, let's go," said Cynder, walking over toward the staircase. Spyro followed in suit with Sparx buzzing right behind him. Jak and Calidan however were stagnant, and appeared to be deep in thought. Their stoic forms caused Spyro and Cynder to stop and turn around.

"You can't still be considering just staying here can you?" Cynder asked them.

"Why not?" asked Jak.

"The Jak I remember would never have asked that question," replied Cynder.

"The Jak you remember is gone, when Haven exiled him, he vanished."

"I don't believe that, and I know you don't either," said Cynder. Jak turned his head away, trying to block her out.

"Stop acting like a spoiled brat!" said Cynder, causing Jak to fume and Daxter to look shocked. "I may not know the full details of what happened, but it sounds like the people of Haven acted like a bunch of jerks for what they did, but does that mean you should turn back on your friends? On Keira?" The mention of Keira's name made Jak shake a little and soften his heart. She was right, so what if he was banished by Haven, he knew she had nothing to do that. Also, if she could, Keira would have made sure he wasn't banished in the first place, as would all of his friends.

"Calidan," Cynder turned toward him, and caught his attention, "You're still not staying here right? I mean, so many lives are in the balance, you can't just turn back on all this?"

"Why not? What difference can I make?" Calidan asked her.

"More a difference than you believe," Cynder answered.

"I can?"

"I can tell you've been living in isolation for so long, you're ignorant of how you can impact other people," she said. "I know one person can make a difference, I've seen it before, both good and bad, and now we have another event where both sides will collide. If the world is to be saved, we must proceed."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm scared," said Calidan, causing everyone to turn toward him with shock. "You're saying the fate of the world now rests on us? With me? I've never been dealt with this kind of responsibility before, I don't think I qualify, what if I screw this whole thing up?"

"You can't believe that" said Spyro.

"But I…"

"ENOUGH!" yelled Jak, silencing everyone and causing everyone to turn toward him. Daxter winced from his shout, nearly falling off his shoulder.

"Feeling sorry and berating yourself is no way to live," said Jak, "and if you continue to do so, no one will be alive, we have to take action, or lose everything trying."

Everyone was speechless, it sounded like Jak finally got his priorities back. He finally started walking toward the staircase, passing Cynder along the way, though he stopped to say, "thanks for that, guess I needed it."

"Yeah you did," Cynder smirked, Spyro responded with a nod. Seeing this whole union of people lift their individual spirits up was inspiring to Calidan, and finally figured it out, what's the point of living if it wasn't for the greater good? He finally let out a relieved breath and smiled, his spirit finally uplifted.

"Okay," he said catching their attention again. "I still don't know how much help I can be, but I'll do my part none the less, you can count on me."

"Great," said Spyro. The others nodded, and finally looked ahead to the staircase. They climbed the stairs one at a time until they came to the top, only to see that on the other side of the gate was an opening to a canopy of the Monk temple. They looked out, they could see nearly ruined structures lying around the area, and they were standing on a ledge that overlooked the whole scenery, with a bridge right in front of them.

"Well, this certainly looks inviting," said Daxter.

"It is if you can fly," bragged Sparx, "which I can." Daxter sneered at him.

"Do you two have a vendetta against each other?" asked Calidan.

"Yeah they do," Spyro exasperated.

"Let's not waste time on it please," said Cynder.

"Agreed," replied Calidan. They started walking toward the bridge until they were intercepted by a parrot-monkey flying in from above!

"There you all are!" said Packer as he set down on a rafter right next to the ledge, "I'm so squawking happy I found you."

"Packer? Great as if Daxter wasn't bad enough," huffed Sparx.

"What are you doing out here?" asked Cynder.

"Delivering a message just as I'm paid for, Ah I see Spyro's party came after all, a little late though." Everyone gave him an exhausted look at his comment.

"A parrot-monkey?" asked Calidan.

"Whose this? Another tag-along?" asked Packer.

"Yeah, I'm new, who are you?"

"Don't ask," interrupted Daxter, "its best you not know."

"I heard that!"

"Good!"

"Knock it off," said Jak, "what are you doing out here? Did Damas send you?"

"Yes and no, I have received a message from Onin."

"Onin the soothsayer?" asked Spyro.

"Soothsayer?" questioned Calidan.

"She has contacted me through her mysticism, and says we must get back to Haven city, she says the catacombs are the key to the planets very survival. I told his royal highness that it was best you should journey back, so your immediate return was not expected anytime soon."

"Seem said the way back was right in front of us," Cynder said.

"Well what are we waiting for?" replied Jak, pointing at the other end of the bridge, where a door shaped like the Seal of Mar was located, "let's move out." They finally started walking over the bridge toward the door. However once all made their first steps onto the bridge, suddenly a crack echoed throughout the room. They halted their advance.

Craaaccck

"Okay, that doesn't sound good" said Daxter, while at the same time everyone stopped moving.

"Someone please tell me that wasn't the bridge we were standing on," said Calidan.

CRRAACCKK! They all turned around, horrified to see that the bridge was collapsing at its anchor.

"MOVE!" Everyone broke out into a run toward the Seal door, the bridges cobblestones continued collapsing underneath their feet. Spyro and Cynder were leading while Sparx and Packer were airborne by the door waiting for them. Jak was following right behind them, with Calidan bringing up the rear. He could hear and feel the collapse of the bridge behind him and ran as fast as he could to outrun it. Spyro and Cynder had reached the end, and Jak was making his final reach. Calidan had almost reached it until he could no longer feel anything underneath his feet. He made one last leap for the ledge, only to miss it. He nearly fell all the way…only for Jak to grab his hand at the last instant. The rest of the bridge collapsed to the ground below and shattered everywhere. Jak grabbed Cal's arm with both hands and pulled him to safety.

"Whew, thanks," he told Jak.

"You got it punk," he said with a smirk. Calidan just shook his head, knowing that wasn't going to change anytime soon. They all stood at the door, but it didn't seem like it was opening for them.

"Anyone have a key?" asked Sparx. In response, Jak took out his Mar medallion again and held it up to the door. The medallion glowed, and the door gave an unlatching sound, before it split open before them, revealing an elevator.

"Did that answer your question?" Jak replied.

"Keep that handy, we might need it later on," added Calidan.

They all walked onto the elevator, and as they approached the center, it descended. Everyone stood still as they hung on for the ride, it was quite a descent, it lasted for almost 30 seconds. Finally it made touchdown, and everyone looked ahead to see an open orange sanctum. The dragons were first to step out followed by Sparx and Packer, and then Jak, Daxter and Calidan followed in suit. The sanctum, or subrails as was described to them by Seem, appeared to be a wide open arena similar to the temple atrium. In the center was what appeared to be an odd yellow vehicle, and it was hovering by the looks of it. To the right was a large open tube, leading to where, they did not know.

"Wow, this is amazing, it's like a modern built temple," said Cynder.

"My thoughts exactly," added Spyro.

"These subrails look like the catacombs Daxter and I saw in Haven city," finished Jak, "question is, do they really lead to Haven?"

"From what that lady monk told us, it should," said Calidan.

"So I guess we better settle in and hang on for the ride," said Jak.

"Riding in vehicles," said Spyro disdainly, "Something I'll never get used to."

"I can probably say the same thing purple boy," Cynder told him followed by a nudge, "but we ain't on our world anymore, and its best we adapt if we hope to get anywhere."

"Just remember to keep your wings and tails inside the car at all times, do all that and you'll be just fine," said Jak.

"So he says," Spyro whispered to Cynder.

"Come on," Jak told him, giving him a light smack on the back of the head as he approached to board the vehicle, it had four seats, two in the front and two in back, enough room for all of them. Jak sat in the far front seat, with Daxter on his shoulder and Calidan sitting next to him in the passenger seat. The dragons took their seats in the back, keeping their wings tucked in close to them like a sleeping bird. Sparx clung onto Spyro's horn while Packer flew up toward the driver's seat and landed in front of Jak.

"I presume you know how to start this thing?" Packer asked him.

"Got it covered," said Jak, pulling his medallion out again and as he did, it started glowing again. The machine hummed and its hovering thrusters activated boosting it a little further off the ground. A compartment opened up in front of him, and a wheel extracted out in front of him. "Here we go"

He took ahold of the wheel, and pushed it forward, and the vehicle drove into the tube with a jolt, catching everyone off guard somewhat. Soon it settled down while picking up speed, and they entered the tube passing through the electrostatic field that blocked it off.

Flying through the subrails was like riding a roller coaster, only this one you had to steer in certain directions to avoid running into what would be considered scaffolding to the common people. From what was known, the subrails were built by Precursors, as a support structure for shaping Elorin into what it was. What the heroes were flying through was only one of many subrail structures within the planet. None the less, it was quite a journey, but eventually they saw the exit in front of them, a static gate similar to the one they had entered.

"We've reached the end of the line!" yelled Jak as they passed through the gate.

"Hit the brakes then!" Calidan yelled back. Jak looked to the floor, only in horror to see there weren't any brakes!

"Umm"

"No brakes!" screamed Daxter, "WE'RE GONNA SPLATTER ALL OVER THE WALL!" The dragons gasped, and the dragonfly fainted, wondering what to do next.

"Pull back the wheel!" yelled Calidan.

"The wheel?!"

"DO IT!"

Jak pulled in back toward his chest, and as the vehicle reached the top of the tube exit, it finally slowed down, though it was moving closer to the wall…closer…closer, until it nearly touched it, and then it shut off. Everyone took a sigh of relief that they had made it in one piece.

"Good call Calidan," complimented Spyro.

"Your welcome, helps to have mechanical expertise," said Calidan.

"Your earning your stripes, keep it up," added Jak. Calidan nodded and looked toward the opposite wall, and saw another opening to another elevator.

"The path looks clear, guess we better get moving," Cal said.

"Let's go everyone," said Jak hopping out of the vehicle, "but be on your guard, who knows what's out there." The dragons and their dragonfly compatriot nodded in response and jumped out as well. The whole group walked over toward the elevator with Packer leading the charge through the air. They all stepped on, and after 5 seconds, they heard it hum and come to life. It began lifting up toward the surface with its passengers, except for Packer and Sparx who decided to fly up ahead of them. Spyro and Cynder gave each other a subtle nuzzle along the way, while Jak readied his weapon with Daxter on his shoulder, and Calidan had his hand on his weapon behind his back. The elevator finally reached the top, and they all found themselves in some sort of canyon.

"What took you guys so long?" Sparx asked with humor.

"Oh you're a riot Sparx," said Spyro.

"Hey, someone has to show a sunshine attitude, with you guys so serious all the time," he said as he buzzed off through the canyon.

"So he's got a mouth too huh?" asked Calidan.

"Every world has one," said Cynder.

"Ain't that the truth," finished Jak.

"Rawrk! Everyone!" Packer yelled getting everyone's attention, "come up here quick!"

"Listen to the bird! You guys gotta see this!" added Sparx.

Everyone moved forward into the canyon, only to find their way led up to a multitude of ledges. They couldn't clearly see what was at the top, but from what Packer and Sparx told, it was clearly important. Jak put his gun back in the holster and started jumping up each ledge, grabbing the edge of each to pull himself up. Calidan followed his example, and the dragons merely flew themselves to the top. Jak and Calidan has just reached the top ledge and pulled themselves all the way up. They were quite flabbergasted to see a full open canyon, littered with structures built into the walls, and what appeared to be some sort of rail system running along the open canopy between it, supported by tall stone pillars. Spyro was quick to question as soon as Jak walked up behind him.

"What is this place?"

"It looks like some kind of old eco mine," Jak theorized, "I bet that when Mar built Haven city, he carved out all these old caves to access the eco power."

"Sheesh," said Daxter, "That Mar guy must have never slept much."

"Mar?" asked Calidan, "now that's a name I haven't heard in a while, though from what I could remember, he was a big name."

"Indeed he was," said Jak, "He built Haven city to hide the Precursor stone, and even helped fight off the metalheads."

"Sounds like someone we could use right now," said Spyro, "especially considering what's coming."

Packer caught everyones attention again, "I'm going ahead to tell Onin and the others were back, I'll also fill them in on you two dragons here as well, though I would watch your tail feathers, this is a spooky place."

"We'll catch up soon Packer, go on," said Jak. With that, the parrot monkey flew off, leaving the group of six to themselves.

"So, how do we get through here?" asked Calidan looking in every direction. Jak turned toward the right and saw a huge door at the end of the railroad tracks. "From what I can see, that door needs to be knocked down."

"Knock it down? it's completely locked up! Unless you have some dynamite laying around."

"That's actually a dynamite idea," said Jak with humor. The dragons and the sidekicks chuckled.

"Say again?" asked Calidan.

"We blow it with dynamite, we'll follow those tracks, they'll have to lead to a mine car, and we use the mine car to blow the door open."

"Look at the big brain on Jak everyone!" cheered Daxter.

"Good job Jak," commented Cynder.

"Yes yes very good, but how are we going to reach it? Mainly me? I'm the only one of this group that doesn't fly minus Daxter."

"You'll have to stay here, we can fly to the end of the track faster and we can release it from there" said Spyro.

"Sounds good to me, I'll hold down the fort here," Calidan replied taking out his Omega Fire from his back.

"Let's fly," Spyro said as he and Cynder took flight with Sparx at their side. Jak stood still and closed his eyes, and put his hands together. Suddenly his eyes flashed open with light and he levitated into the air. Everyone went wide-eyed at the spectacle, but it went as quickly as it came, Jak touched ground again glowing with blue light and shining wings protruding from his back.

"That will take some getting used to," said Calidan.

Jak joined the dragons in the air, they all nodded together and took flight following the mine rail, leaving Calidan by himself.

The flight was calm, no fierce winds were ripping through the canyon walls. That being said, anything with wings was welcome, birds, parrots, though today there was something else flying through the air. It was alien, and it was extraordinary. The railway line seemed to stretch all the way through the canyon, is started off practically straight right from the base, but then it curved up and toward the right. With the railway line beneath them, they continued to fly until it reached its upper anchor.

"By the way Jak," Sparx said turning toward Jak who was right behind the dragons.

"I forgot to say, welcome to the flyers club."

"Thanks," Jak said with a somewhat ethereal tone. "I have to admit its surreal.

"Just watch how hard you flap, your carrying me after all," added Daxter.

"Yeah I know, precious cargo," Jak shot back, drawing snickers from everybody except of course…

"Who are you calling cargo?!"

"Relax Dax," Jak retorted.

"I've been waiting for someone to say that! Haha yes!" Sparx cheered.

"Can it bug boy!" yelled Daxter.

"Enough," said Spyro, at the same time, they were flying around another earth monolith, as the rail ran along it, held in place via supports mounted into the monolith itself. They reached the other side in no time at all, and they saw how the rail directed itself further up. It looped around the whole diameter of the monolith and up toward a ledge built into the side of the mountain.

"Wait a minute, the rails!" Jak called catching everyones attention. They also saw that beneath the rails there appeared to be giant lights, and that in actuality, seemed to break the rails off of each other, causing a gap. It was logical to conclude that those light targets were a means to connecting the broken rails.

"We'll have to lower those rails if we do find a car," said Jak as they approached the ledge.

"I think we've reached the end of the line," said Spyro.

"You couldn't have phrased that a little better?" asked Cynder.

"Sorry"

They all flew up to the top of the ledge. Everyone set down on the catwalk overseeing the entire canyon. They saw that the rail led all the way up from the abyss to the catwalk which was built into the side of the mountain, where what appeared to be an huge shed door was present. They also saw that the catwalk led all the way down the mountain, in sight of the railway. Sparx buzzed up toward the door and took a quick peek.

"I'm not seeing anything that looks like a mine car."

"It's probably on the other side of that door," said Cynder, "if we could find a way to activate it." Jak had just deactivated his light mode and followed her advice, looking all over the area to see if there was a switch or lever. Unfortunately there was hardly anything on the outside, aside from some old wooden crates and chains. It was until he looked directly at the door that he noticed something familiar, as did Spyro.

"Look, the Seal of Mar!" he said. The Seal of Mar was indeed etched onto the door, though it seemed to be embedded into a small circular lock extrusion split between the two doors.

"Straight forward enough," said Jak, pulling out his seal again. It glowed, which caused the lock to lighten up as well. There was the sound of something unlatching, and shifting. Everyone present watched the door, as it split open and letting fresh air in after untold years of inactivity. Sparx flew in first.

"Hello!" he echoed in the chamber. Nothing answered him, much to his chagrin shock.

"Sparx, nothing alive is in here," reasoned Spyro.

"Couldn't hurt to ask," said Sparx.

"Sure, like we don't have enough to worry about, on top of a world ending crisis and what not?" complained Daxter. Sparx just sneered.

"I think we found our car," said Jak, pointing toward the back. There were indeed numerous cars sitting on various rails in the back of the chamber. It was like a turntable housing for mine cars. There was one already on the turntable, and by the looks of it, was filled to the brim with explosives.

"And hopefully that's how we get it going," said Cynder, pointing toward the wall on the right side. Two levers were sticking out of the wall mounted upward. Jak walked over to it, and gripped the longer one in his hand. "Here goes something."

A whirring sound echoed in the chamber, followed by the sound of gears turning. Everyone watched as the turntable started moving counterclockwise, slowly reaching the connecting rails that led outside. It took a good 30 seconds, but it finally connected, though the car wasn't moving anywhere.

"Can we unlock it?" asked Spyro.

"Let's try the other one," said Jak, gripping the second lever and pulling it down. The underlying brake assembly mounted on the track latching the car in place released itself, and the car started moving toward the open exit.

"Eureka!" cheered Sparx. Everyone nodded with satisfaction as they followed the car out, however it was to their shock, that they remembered the track was broken open. Jak in quick instinct grabbed his gun from his back and equipped the blaster mod.

"I'm on it!" he declared. He opened fired at the first track target in front of him. It immediately activated it, causing the rail to extend to the following rail in front of it. That was one down, but there were many more left. Spyro and Cynder took flight again, and Spyro took ahold of Jak's shoulders again.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"We'll fly, you shoot okay?" said Spyro. Jak nodded in response, and the whole group of five took off, making sure to keep ahead of the rail car. They followed the rail down past the monolith, going the long way around, with the catwalk on their right. Spyro was doing his best to keep up with Cynder carrying Jak. Soon, another track target was in sight, and Jak took aim. The car was coming around the monolith as Jak opened fired. POP! His shot hit the target but caused Spyro to recoil back from the shock, he wasn't expecting that. His grip on Jak loosened and one of his paws came loose.

"WOAH!" cried Jak.

"YIKES!" followed Daxter.

"Hang on!" assured Spyro.

"Spyro!" cried Cynder flying over.

"Oh man, we can't catch a break at all!" complained Sparx.

"Spyro," said Jak, "let me down at the catwalk, I'll follow the rail around by foot, otherwise you might end up letting go at the next shot." Spyro nodded, and flew over to the catwalk and set Jak down.

"Keep up with the car!" he ordered. The dragons nodded, heading his advice. Jak then ran along the catwalk to gain advantage over the car, which had already passed the second set of extended rails. It wouldn't be long before it reached the door.

Calidan was busy scavenging the crates that he noticed by the edge of the cliff for anything worthwhile. Since he was waiting for the heroes to return, he figured he would do something worthwhile. If there was anything left worthwhile to salvage in this old mine, he would find it. Other than finding a couple old tools which he already had enough of and some extra fasteners, it seemed like it was a dead end.

"Ugh, nothing," he was frustrated to say the least, "A mine is usually a gold mine in more cases then one, yet all I'm finding here are trinkets! Bet the others have been more fortunate in finding something more useful wherever they went. If only I could finish my latest invention, I'd…"

He was interrupted by the sound of a railroad car rolling, followed by what he could presume to be a gunshot, "Well, well, looks like it worked out for them after all."

He looked toward the far end of the canyon, where the group of five originally flew to, and observed as far as his eye could see. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his binoculars and took an extended look. He could just make out the shapes of the dragons flying through the air. However, Jak was nowhere to be seen. He ran to the edge of the cliff to adjust his range of vision, but still nothing, other than the dragons flying around the monolith and following the railway coming down. POP Another gunshot was echoed throughout the canyon, and he adjusted his binoculars again, and saw the catwalk aligning the side of the mountain, and finally sighted Jak and Daxter running along it. Then from out behind the monolith, the railcar was running on the tracks. It was beginning its final drop before it reached the rails to the door. He saw it run down, the dragons flying across Calidan's perch to keep ahead of it. POP Then another gunshot echoed through the canyon. Calidan heard the sound of running feet above him. Then suddenly he looked behind him to see Jak jump from the ledge to the left and run right past him.

"What the?"

"Miss us?" Jak said before he shot at the final track target in front of him, however it was a wild shot and missed.

"No, but you did miss the target."

"Shall we try that again?" asked Daxter. The car had almost reached the end of the track.

"Now would be a good time," said Daxter, egging on the distress. This time Jak relaxed, and then fired POP the shot flew for a split second and this time made contact! The track extended for the last bit of rail. The rail car made all its way over and toward the door, about to blow up with a bang…

Read and review! Till next post


	12. Chapter 12 Count Veger

Hope everyone had a great Memorial day, here's the next chapter for your entertainment

* * *

KABLAAAAMMMM!

The shockwave from the blast caused the dragons to recoil a little bit. Fortunately no debris was blown their way so they escaped unharmed. The door on the other hand was completely blown open, revealing another turntable style setting. The dragons flew down to the catwalk where the two wastelanders and the ottsel stood still stunned from the explosion.

"Awesome, I guess that's one way to open a door," said Calidan.

"A bit extreme, but for a heavily fortified door it was needed," replied Jak.

"Important thing is no one was hurt," said Daxter, "mainly me"

"Glad to hear it Daxter," Cynder said dryly as she flew down to sit on the catwalk, with Spyro landing right by her.

"Well, we've opened the door, but to where exactly?" asked Spyro.

"Hopefully the surface, without any more unexpected shortcuts," answered Jak.

"Lead the way, fearless," remarked Calidan. Jak sneered, but then put his gun away. Jak then walked over to the other end of the catwalk, which was blocked off by a vertical drop bridge. Although it proved no trouble as Jak simply kicked it down so it collapsed to the other side. However trouble immediately came again, as flying mantis metalheads started jumping down to intercept them.

"Metalheads!" yelled Calidan

"Oh great, more of these vermin!" Cynder spat out.

"Just give them their usual treatment," Jak added, pulling his gun out again. He equipped his blaster mod and started shooting as they jumped and flew around to avoid his shots. Calidan brought out his Omega Fire and took aim. The dragons took flight again and flew after two mantis metalheads that were jumping off the cliffs. Jak immediately shot two dead in the head, dropping them and their skull gems in unison. Calidan had one in his sights, and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, and spat out a small ammo shell out of the cartridge. It hit the metalhead in the chest, driving him back, and…that was it. It could still stand and attack!

"This isn't the time to be shooting blanks! I thought you were the one who comes prepared!" yelled Daxter.

"Blanks on metalheads, is that all you've managed to scavenge?" asked Jak.

"Wait for it," Calidan said with a smirk. Suddenly, a beeping noise was catching everyone's attention, and they all followed the tone toward, the metalhead he had shot. The ammo didn't penetrate the metalhead, it latched itself to it, and it was slowly beeping.

"Are you about to do what I think your about to do?" asked Jak with a smirk.

"Yup," he pulled up a guard on top of his left gauntlet, there were a multitude of miniature contact points for specific signals, the perfect way to engage a tracking system, or in this case, send a detonation signal to a close proximity bomb. That aside, another metalhead jumped down to intercept them, and attacked Jak before he could align and shoot. His gun fell to the side though the metalhead had rung his own bell and was seeing stars. Seeing the advantage, Jak reached and grabbed his gun again and pointed it toward the dazed one.

"Wait!"

"What?" asked Jak harshly.

"I said wait for the right opportunity," answered Calidan.

The metalhead he had tagged was hissing at the wastelanders, ignorant of the bomb that had been placed on him, he approached Jak from behind who was still frozen in place above the other metalhead holding his gun. It lurked slowly, slowly, until, it jumped! It gave out a loud screech as it flew toward Jak.

"Roll now!" ordered Calidan. Jak didn't hesitate, and rolled away from the down metalhead, causing the flying one to impact them in a dogpile. Both were motionless from the impact, but Jak on the other hand was rising to his feet.

"Two heads," said Jak.

"One bomb," finished Calidan pressing the trigger on his gauntlet.

BOOOOMMMM!

Everyone shielded themselves with their hands or paws, in the dragon's case. Sparx had taken cover and Daxter had ducked behind Jak, but they both eventually peeked out to see what the others saw, a small smoldering crater where the metalheads once were. The outworlders were flabbergasted at what they just saw, although Jak was intrigued.

"He, not bad, not bad at all, those come standard issue?" he asked Calidan.

"Afraid not, pulled it out of a Marauder camp, they are the only ones I know of that have any ammunition for this thing," said Cal.

"What are you gonna do when you run out then?" asked Jak.

"My thoughts exactly" added Daxter.

"I have more back home, I know how to make do with what I've got," he answered.

"I certainly hope you know how to handle it well," said Cynder. "If it did this much damage as you planned, I hate to see what will happen if it doesn't."

"I've practiced with weapons all my life, you have nothing to worry about from me."

"Yeah, we'll see about that dirt boy," she smirked.

"DIRT BOY! Who are you calling dirt boy?!" Everyone laughed at his expense, it was no surprise Cynder would give a nickname to their newest recruit.

"Haha, guess we know what Cynder will refer to as now," Jak chuckled.

"Don't forget blue boy, that goes for you too," said Cynder, "don't think because your attire has changed is going to make a difference." She of course was referring to Jak's wasteland attire, the same blue shirt with the sleeves cut off and armor pieces over various sets of his body including his arms and legs, and a desert rag around his waist.

"Some things never change huh?"

"Around her they do," said Spyro, who locked eyes with the dragoness in a loving gaze, "and its usually for the better."

"If this informal conversation is over, can we finally go through the door?" asked Calidan, who had already stepped forward toward the open door. The others shrugged their shoulders, and moved forward, they entered the turntable chamber passing by the rubble the bomb car had left. The chamber was about the same size as the last one they were in, but there were three locked doors in back. Jak and Calidan moved toward two of them, the ones in the middle and to the right. They knocked on the locks, but it seemed they would respond to some sort of transponder signal, which they did not have.

"I don't think your seal is going to open these," said Cal.

"Maybe you can blow them with those Omega bombs," said Jak.

"I've tested it on scrap metal, but never anything this high grade," replied Cal.

"Perhaps there's another path," said Spyro right behind them, and he stood by a lever junction box. Everyone walked over to it and analyzed the levers, it was a junction box of three, two small ones and one long one.

"Anybody up for rock paper scissors to decide?" Daxter asked. His question silenced the group and answered his question. "Figured not."

"I say pull the long one, it looks like the primary," said Jak.

"I agree, the rest of us will remain vigil, go ahead," said Cal. The dragons and Calidan stood side by side on the platform adjacent to the junction box. Jak gripped the lever in his hands, and pulled.

Huummm…A humming noise filled the chamber, causing the platform Calidan, Spyro, and Cynder were standing on to spin. They were slightly startled, until stopped all of a sudden. Jak walked onto the platform and it started to drop. They weren't sure what to expect at the bottom of the elevator, but whatever it was they believed it was set on the path. It dropped for another 10 seconds before another tunnel was open to their view. It appeared to be some sort of underground sanctum, and they could see more Precursor structures on the wall at the very back of the chamber. They walked ahead across the bridge over to the platform that took up the full space of the sanctum. The gate behind them closed quickly as soon as they made it to the platform. They also noticed there was scaffolding in the back, with a door fastened into it.

"Cozy accommodations, considering we're underground again," said Sparx.

"Just keep moving forward," added Jak as he turned around to face the party.

"We've all come this far from the wasteland so let's go all the way…" He was interrupted by the sound of an opening door behind him, and all faces fell to the other side of the chamber with the fastened door, it was lifting up, revealing a figure from behind. He was dressed in a fancy suit, and holding what appeared to be a cane in his hand. As the figure stepped through the door, most of the party didn't recognize him at all because they never saw him before, that is except for Jak and Daxter who sneered.

"Well well, the desert drop-offs are here, and welcome as much as a rat," said Count Veger.

"Hey! I resent that remark!" exclaimed Daxter.

"Who's the fancy suited stick?" asked Sparx.

"Silence your tongue you bug!" yelled Veger.

"Who are you calling bug?!" Sparx shot back.

"Jak, who is he?" asked Spyro.

"The reason I'm in the wasteland," said Jak lowly.

"What?" exclaimed the dragons.

"So what the monks said is true, the dragons are back, just when the neighborhood was becoming much less of a headache," said Veger.

"Hey! You better watch your mouth you stiff!" shouted Cynder, "or else I'll…"

"You'll what scaly?" interrupted Veger, "throw some fire in my face?"

"Don't tempt me," steamed Cynder.

"Easy Cynder, don't let him provoke you," consoled Spyro.

"Though I guess introductions are in order, I am Count Veger, and yes the reason Jak and his little rat are in exile, though they had it coming."

"Right, anything just to get yourself ahead," remarked Jak.

"How could you banish Jak?!" yelled Spyro, "He saved the city and your lives!"

"It was his fault we were in peril in the first place, he shouldn't have gotten involved with the wrong people, including you scaly lizards," Veger sneered.

"Keep talking like that and I'll give you something to really be afraid of," Cynder threatened with malice.

"Cynder," consoled Jak, "He's not worth it."

"I'm actually with her on this one," said Calidan, "I don't like this guy's attitude one bit."

"And I can't stand wastelanders who don't know their place! You shouldn't be here cast off! You were banished for a reason now go back!"

"Hey! You don't know me! You have no right to tell me what I can or can't do!"

"Easy Cal," said Jak.

"Have the right? I have the right to do more and know more than you do, thanks to the monks."

"The monks work for you?" asked an astonished Spyro.

"In a manner of speaking, and their knowledge archives are unquestionable, do you fools have any idea where you came from? The Precursor subrails are treacherous, and very few can actually pilot through, they were once used by the Precursors themselves to build this very world. They stretch through this world's very body connecting to places one could say unreachable, as the texts proclaim."

"Your point being?" asked Jak.

"There are untold secrets within these very paths, and could bring light to the coming darkness, and cleansing this world just as Mar did ages ago," said Veger.

"Yeah, you've done a great job so far, letting the metalheads destroy the palace!" exclaimed Jak.

"Oh you couldn't be more mistaken dear boy, we're on a time clock Jak! That light in the sky, do you know what it is?"

"As a matter of fact we do," said Spyro, "why do you bring it up?"

"Then you know whats coming," continued Veger, "the eventual end of life as we know, and the only way to stop it is within the catacombs themselves. Unfortunately they have been cut-off from access, so I was forced to attack the palace myself, it will be our little secret." His revelation shocked the group.

"You? It was you!?" sputtered Spyro.

"Well you're full of surprises," added Jak dryly.

"AND YOUR FULL OF DARK ECO!" stammered Veger, "You and your little gang are an abomination, and I will cleanse this world of it soon enough." The gang sneered at him giving his twisted declaration.

"Pure light will eventually reveal itself and I will be the bright light that shines to every corner of the world, and destroy all shadows!" he declared.

Daxter interrupted his monologue, "Uh excuse me Count Vulgar"

"It's Veger!" the rest of the group chuckled.

"Yeah whatever," he said as he jumped down from Jak's shoulder. "Isn't it kinda nice just to curl up in the shade sometimes? Just chillin and watching the hot babes dance in their little bikinis…" The rest of conversation drooled on, bringing apprehensive looks on the rest of the groups faces, except for…

"ENOUGH!" yelled Veger, "We will start the cleansing of the world with your demise!" He turned around holding his staff high, and the orb fixed at the top appeared to glow. He faced toward what appeared to be a tall Precursor statue carved into the rock above the doorway he had entered.

"Behold, for I now command the very power of the ancient one!" he declared. To their shock, the statue appeared to be shaking, rocks were cracking all around it. The very cave felt like it was shaking with it, and then all of a sudden…

BOOOMMM!

The secret of the statue revealed itself as a large precursor robot! Everyone was shocked at the revelation at what Veger had just done, through some ancient precursor mysticism he had awakened this mechanical marvel. Even though it was a robot, it didn't appear friendly at all. Veger just snickered at their expressions.

"Surprised much?"

"What is that?" asked a shocked Spyro.

"A precursor robot," said Jak, "how he brought it alive, I have no idea."

"This time Jak," said Veger as he exited through the door he had entered from, "the precursors will not have mercy on you." The door closed, leaving the group to deal with the robot. It broke its feet free from the wall and used what appeared to be jet boots to propel itself into the air.

"I think we may have a fight on our hands," said Calidan pulling out his Omega Fire.

"How do we beat it?" Spyro asked Jak.

"It's still a robot," he said, "so pick it apart piece by piece!"

"Sounds good to me!" said Calidan. The robot opened up a compartment on its arm, and a long rod extended from it and lit up with energy. It gripped it like a sword.

"Okay, this kinda work is out of my league," stammered Sparx, "so I'll leave to you guys to it, ciao!" And he buzzed all the way back to the entrance.

"Yeah, there's a real hero for ya," said Daxter.

"You can't blame him," said Spyro, "he's actually doing the smart thing for him." The robot flew closer to them drawing back his sword to swing. It swung it forcing the group to split to both sides to avoid the swing.

"We'll hit it high!" said Cynder as she and Spyro took flight.

"We'll keep it occupied!" exclaimed Jak pulling out his blaster. In response Calidan pulled out the Omega Fire from behind his back.

"Let's see how it likes the rapid fire setting!" said Calidan, turning a knob on the side of the gun. He aimed and fired at the robot at its chest. The gun shot numerous blasts out of its barrel like an automatic. Despite an accurate shot, the robot seemed to be brushing them off! Jak even shot a few rounds with his blaster, but it was brushing them off too!

"We're gonna need something a lot heavier!" yelled Jak. Spyro and Cynder flew around the robot and attacked it from behind. Spyro fired an electric stream breath and Cynder a poison bomb. They both actually seemed effective, the robot seemed to flinch from the electric attack, and the poison stuck to its back. It swung its sword in retaliation, trying to knock the dragons out of the air. They just barely avoided it. Calidan took an interest in their respective attacks.

"Wow, that's it!" he said to himself before calling to the dragons, "Hey Spyro! You in purple! Fire another one of those streams, robots can't take electrical overloads, go for the head! Cynder! Aim for the joints, thats the best way to pick it apart!" They both nodded and stabilized their air position, and focused on their targets. However, their fire was postponed as the robot fired its own weapon, the shoulder pads opened up and let loose a barrage of bombs!

They zoomed and whistled through the air, narrowly missing the dragons, and even Sparx. As they hit ground, Jak and Cal jumped agile away from the impacts, they left little craters where they impacted. The robot took aim toward Calidan, and raised its sword again, catching Cal's attention in the nick of time. It swung and missed Cal as he jumped away again, but the impact threw him to the side of the platform causing him to drop his gun.

Seeing Cal's predicament, Jak switched over to his newest morph gun upgrade he had received from Spargus, the Vulcan Mod 2 Arc Wielder. He fired from it a blue electrical arc stream, similar to Spyro's electric breath but with a wider radius. The stream caused the robot to shake in the air, its circuits apparently getting crossed.

"Pick yourself up man! Can't keep him occupied forever!"

Cal nodded and immediately jumped back on his feet, and ran for his gun. To avoid losing all of his ammo, Jak cut out the stream, hoping he had fired most of the robots primary circuits. The robot however was tough, restabilizing its jet boots, even the mark Cynder left in back hadn't melted through the robots whole chassis. The dragons took aim once again and fired their respective breaths at it. Electric hit the head and caused it to drop its sword onto the platform below. Cynder's poison blast hit the shoulder of the right arm, it appeared to have stalled movement.

"Yes that's it! It can't take too much more now,"

"I wouldn't be surprised if it could, I've seen these things in action before, and it takes more a few effective shots to ground it permanently," said Jak.

"Well, seeing as how you're the expert, care to share on how to accomplish that?" commented Calidan.

"We need one final target with one final blow!" exclaimed Jak, "We're going to need the Omega bombs."

"Check that, anything else?" Jak turned toward the robot, who was trying to grab the dragons from the air with its free arm. Spyro kept out of his reach, however Cynder got caught by her tail!

"HEY! Let me go at once you junkhead!" She spit out another poison bomb at the hand, causing it to freeze up as well, it couldn't open or close leaving Cynder's tail trapped.

"Cynder!" cried Spyro flying in to attack.

"Spyro wait!" called Jak, halting his advance. "We have a plan don't worry, we'll get her out." He turned his attention to Calidan beside him. "Almost ready yet?" Calidan locked and loaded his Omega Fire, so the question was given an impromptu answer.

"Good, now Spyro, this is where you come in," said Jak

"What?"

"Uh boys," said Cynder, my tail is trapped and the robot is still moving…" Indeed it was , and it appeared ready to open its shoulder pads again.

"Hang on Cynder, we're coming," said Spyro.

"hehehehe, hang! Hoho! That couldn't have been any better!" Sparx spoke out of gasps of laughter.

"When I get out of this," hissed Cynder, I'm going to take his wings and…" she didn't finish as the robot fired more bombshells. The attack caused everyone on the platform to scatter again. But that was the moment they had waited for, now that the robot had attacked it was briefly defenseless, as Cal took aim with his omega bombs and fired into his tactical targets. One on the chest, one on each shoulder, two at the waist, and one more for the head. The robot couldn't do a thing as the ticking bombs were adhesive to its body.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN! CYNDER! BRACE YOURSELF!"

Everyone save for Cynder ducked their heads down to the ground, while Calidan reached for his wrist mounted controller. It took a few seconds for the bombs to send a ping back but he soon had them all awaiting input on the same channel. The robot flew up in its boot jets again, trying to gain advantage before bringing a final aerial assault.

The robot prepared to dive bomb until…ping…ping…ping…an array of pings were sent off down the bomb puzzle glued to the chassis. He knew it, this was it.

"And, goodbye," added Cynder.

BOOOMMMM!BOOOOOMMMM!BOOOOOMMMM!BOOOOOMMMM! BOOOOOMMMM!

The robot broke into several pieces, its arms becoming disattached from its main body freeing Cynder. The head blew itself off and the legs fell into the abyss below. The main body fell down in front of them, completely powerless now. As the shock from the collapse subsided, they peeked out to see the remains smoldering in front of them.

"Nice job rogue," said Jak.

"Another day on the job," replied Calidan.

"OH YEAH!" cheered Daxter, "the boys are back in town!"

"Uh guys," said Spyro catching their attention, "can you help get Cynder out?" He was already by her side while she was still held in the nonsensical grip of the robot hand.

"On it," replied Jak. They walked over to her side and with a little bit of leverage provided by some fallen debris, they were able to pry her out.

"Thank you both," she thanked.

"Anytime, so any other surprises you guys care to tell me? Because the stiff with the magic stick was enough to tell me that we're not welcome in Haven," said Calidan.

"Don't let him intimidate you, he'll get his own soon enough," replied Jak.

"But what he said earlier, about attacking the palace," Cynder cut in, "did he really attack it? Destroy it?"

Jak just frowned and slowly nodded his head, Daxter following his lead, she even saw Spyro hang his head and close his eyes in silence. Cynder seethed, she couldn't believe someone who lived within the city would have it destroyed just for his own twisted desires. She knew the city was rough, but apparently there were more demented mongers then Praxis and Kor to deal with.

"Well," interrupted Calidan, "if this palace is destroyed, what exactly are we going back to save?"

"Whatever and whoever is left, let's go," ordered Jak. They all turned toward the cliff where the door the Count had exited from. Jak stunned the party again with his light eco flight powers, activating his wings and taking flight over the chasm toward the door. The dragons took flight and Spyro allowed Calidan to grab his paws as they flew over toward it. They touched base and Jak deactivated his wings as Calidan and the dragons approached the door. It opened for them all, and the dragons, the warriors and the two amusing sidekicks found themselves in another hall that led to another door, though it was familiar to most of them.

"That looks like a door that's used for the city locks," Cynder recalled.

"Then we've arrived, said Jak. The locking mechanism on the doors began to turn and shift in their housings, and the center lock in front has just fallen into its locking bin and made the final turn. The door opened for them and they entered what appeared to be an elevator shaft. They all managed to fit on the platform evenly, and as soon as they did, they started to rise. The ride lasted about a minute and they found themselves at another door, preparing to unlock itself. As soon as it finished opening, they were open to the city, and it anything but welcoming.

"Oh my Gosh" gasped Spyro.

The area they had entered was the city section of Main Town, however, the buildings were completely collapsed. Rubble lay scattered all over the streets, even the entrance to the west side of Main Town had been completely cutoff by the fallen palace structure. Above the elevator they had exited from lay a fallen support tower that stretched across the river toward the entrance of Haven stadium. Cynder was staring at it in disbelief.

"This can't be," she said sadly, "its all destroyed."

"Woah," added Calidan, "from one wasteland into another."

"Place looks as bad as my old bedroom back home," finished Daxter. Sparx was neutral as he buzzed all around the ruined buildings in front of them. He was making sure to keep his distance from disattached wires, for one zap and he was a fried bug light. The city was in rough shape for when he Spyro and Cynder came the last time, now it was like roaming around ruins.

"This place is more of a dump than I remember," said Sparx.

"Do you think it can be rebuilt?" Spyro asked Jak who was neutral upon exiting the elevator.

"Given time, maybe, but there's a war going on and no sense to rebuild while everything is still getting blown up," he said as he turned to his left and started walking off.

"Where are you going?" asked Calidan.

"The exit from this part of town is this way, and the section beyond it hasn't been ruined by the collapse," explained Jak. Everyone nodded in understanding and followed him. The walkway had been warped by the falling debris around them, so the trek across was like walking over a hill, once they reached the turn in front of them however, they had reached the edge by which the collapse had damaged their surroundings.

"I know you said Samos, Torn and the others were still fighting," begun Spyro, "but who is fighting with them? The Underground?"

"The Underground and part of the KG had merged together into a new faction right after you guys left," explained Jak, "they are called the Freedom League, and their Haven's last line of defense."

"What sections of the city do you still have control of?" asked Cynder.

"As much as I remember, we were holding the port, slums, and the region of New Haven," said Jak.

"New Haven?" asked Spyro.

"The city finally made some improvements after you guys left, they rebuilt the whole Water Slums and cleaned the whole area including the water and sewage."

"Sounds like a silver lining if I ever heard one," said Cynder. As she spoke, Sparx zoomed ahead to reach the next corner in front of them which led to the right.

"I never knew a city beyond the wasteland," said Calidan, "its all sand and rock out there, and this," he said stamping the ground, "all this metal for one area, it's a new experience to say the least."

"Yeah well don't think you can relax rogue," said Jak, "all your survivalist training is going to be put to the test here."

"Hmm, caverns, metalheads, robots, you guys are sure an interesting group if not safe," said Cal.

"I guess that counts as a compliment," replied Jak.

"GUYS!" they halted their advance, Sparx catching their attention as he zipped right toward them.

"You are not going to believe whose here!" he spat out.

"Who?" asked Spyro.

"Come on! Come on!" he said again zipping back the way we came. Their newfound interest in what got Sparx so excited caused them to break out into a run. They ran toward the final corner ahead, and came across the exit from Main Town, though it appeared to have some sort of static wall closing it off. However, what caught Sparx's attention was on the other side, or rather who was on the other side!

"Jak!" yelled Samos, who was standing next to his daughter Keira on the other side of the gate, waving them over "everyone! Over here!"

"Samos! Keira!" replied Jak joyfully running over toward them with everyone following behind him.

"Samos!" said Spyro, "It's great to see you again, both of you!"

"You as well young dragons, welcome back," said the sage.

"When we saw Sparx we couldn't believe it at first, but we're overjoyed none the less," added Keira, "we wish the accomodations could be better."

"As do we," consoled Cynder. Jak walked up as close to the gate as he could and looked into Keira's eyes.

"Hey you,"

"Hey" the two greeted each other warmly, however their moment was quickly interrupted by their newest recruit.

"Ahem, sorry to cut in, but I'm the odd guy out here, and would appreciate if I could be acquainted here?"

"Uh, sure," Jak stammered irritantly, "Samos this is Calidan, a wastelander who tagged along with us. Cal, this is Samos and his daughter Keira, my oldest friends."

Calidan was never comfortable with meeting new people. His meeting with Jak and the others was uncomfortable enough, and these were people from the city who had had his family banished. He didn't know what to make of them, though they didn't seem all bad from first look.

"Uh, hello there, and greetings from the wasteland."

"Pleasure as well young one, you've come a long way, and with a great group of resourceful people I assure you."

"You better not be looking to con anyone," Keira cut in with suspicion, "people we've met through odd circumstances don't necessarily mean well, you better make sure to watch where you tread."

"Con?" asked a baffled Cal, "I assure you sweetheart I'm no con, I'm a survivalist, and I only look to rise over what plans to step on me. I may not know much about this city, but I'll face it nevertheless, though there's not much choice in the matter."

"Fighting is all that will keep you alive here I'm afraid, and it's become even more critical than ever. Jak, those passageways below the palace, they must be terribly important, the metalheads and KG robots are advancing toward them, and we can't hold out forever," explained Samos.

"We know, we've been shown what's coming, and we need to brief everyone back at HQ, if we could."

"Yes, I'm afraid Veger has turned on the forcefields here," said Samos.

"Veger again?" spat Cynder.

"Veger's the one who attacked the palace!" revealed Jak, "he said he was looking for an entrance below into the catacombs, where the only means of defense for our planet could be found."

"Well your just going to have to make your way down into it before he does," added Samos, "but first, you must find another way into this section of the city, you and your friends take the sewers into the port, and then find a way north to reach us."

"Sewers? Oh great," said a dismal Sparx.

"Yup, welcome back to Haven bug boy," added Daxter.

"Oh, and Jak?" Samos cut in sorrowfully, "we're sorry for what happened, we should have stopped Veger." Everyone gave Jak apologetic glances as he tensed his fists.

"I'll stop him myself!" he declared.

* * *

Please review, I could use the encouragement


	13. Chapter 13 Travel through the Depths

Hey everyone, apologies for the delay, I've been dealing with some personal issues, and I'm making very significant life changes so I've been wrapped up in them. Don't worry I'm continuing this story to the end, so rest assured it will continue for your entertainment. It also didn't help my computer power supply faulted and shut me down for a while. Nevertheless I'm back, though I have to say I won't be posting as I've been periodically, like I said I have a lot in my personal life to deal with right now, but none the less, this story will continue. Here's a bit of action to get you interested again!

* * *

After bidding farewell to Samos and Keira, the group started off back the way they came. Samos instructed that the sewers were adjacent to the tower they had come from, just across the old drainage ditch. They passed the tower and were making their way toward the bridge over the drainage. The sewer gate soon came into view, but before they could approach Spyro asked a question.

"How are we going to make it from here to the port through the sewers? Do you have some sort of map?"

"I agree," said Calidan, "exactly how are we going to navigate this underground maze?"

"There's a main sewer junction that branches off to all corners of the city, if we can find that branch, we can make our way to the port," answered Jak, "we know the port is on the south side of the city, so if we follow the south markers we'll find our way there."

"Alright then, well lead the way," replied Calidan. They approached the sewer gate, and it already started to open, the horizontal gate locks exchanged sides, and the elevator was open for them. They all climbed aboard, and with that they started to descend. The ride was short, about 10 seconds, before they came to another city lock door. It just started opening upon their arrival and it eventually opened to reveal the underground sewer tunnels. The tunnel in front of them went down and toward the left like a water slide, only the path consisted of stairs and two drainage gutters on the side.

"Well this looks as inviting as much as it smells," said Sparx fanning the air in front of him. "I'm all for backtracking and finding an alternate route, anyone in?"

"Sparx knock it off," said Cynder, "at least the path to follow is clearly laid out, we'll make our way through, as for the smell bear with it, we're all in the same boat."

"She's right Sparx," said Spyro, "and the sooner we get through here the sooner we can come out, so let's move swiftly."

"Remember everyone stay on alert," said Jak catching everyone's attention while descending down the tube stairs, prompting the others to follow. "Nasty creatures live down here, so don't let your guard down." He pulled out his gun finishing his statement, and requipped the blaster mod. Calidan also withdrew his Omega Fire, and set it on what he called the rapid fire setting, as far as he was concerned, with all his time in the wasteland, this sewer was another setting to be conquered. The dragons, remembering their last run through Haven's sewers, knew that the danger Jak was talking about was all too real, and who knows how much worse it may have become with the recent attack on the city. The tunnel curved around and then began descending straight down again, with the stairs in the middle as their only path. Jak realized these must be access shafts for all ends of the sewers, but he wasn't sure if this one led to the center junction they were looking for or not. The descent of this part of the tunnel was longer then they had expected, although they could see the bottom of the steps. The dragons decided to fly ahead to avoid overcrowding up top and scout ahead for their next target.

"Couldn't wait for us, huh?" asked Jak with a smirk.

"Hey, when you have advantages use em!" Cynder gloated.

"You could have done it as well, Jak, eliminate the risk of slipping on those sewer steps," added Spyro.

"Yeah, but then no one would be able to catch castoff here if he slips off," Jak commented turning his hand around to gesture at Calidan, who was becoming annoyed.

"Catch me? Your treading on thin ice buddy," said Cal.

"Then let's hope your reflexes are faster than what you showed us earlier and break your fall."

"If the random insults are done boys," said Cynder before gesturing toward the hall behind her. "I believe we have a junction to find."

"We'll find it faster in flight," said Spyro opening up his wings.

"Agreed, just don't go crazy, these tunnels have limited accessibility, flying would be tricky down here," added Jak.

"Well scout ahead diligently, and come back with a report," reported Spyro and flew ahead with Cynder right behind him.

"Woah! Hey don't forget your designated lantern is here! Wait up!" yelled Sparx as he zoomed after them.

"Designated lantern hah!" snickered Daxter, "consider that added to my log."

"Daxter," Jak said sternly.

"What?! He set himself up, or is all that eco your channeling really given you a thick head?" His statement caused Jak to sneer. "All I'm saying is bug boy sounds off a perfect example to push his buttons and you are not going to take advantage of it?"

"That is not the kind of advantage we or anyone needs, so you and Sparx find a way to get along this time, or you'll both be stuck in a bag permanently!" demanded Jak. Daxter winced, and returned to his shoulder upright position. Calidan ignored the whole conversation, from the get go he knew he didn't want to hear it, and didn't want to be part of it. The silence continued as the path eventually reached level ground again. The two warriors found themselves in an elongated tunnel that seemed to lead to another junction. However, the dragons and the dragonfly who went ahead of them to scout were nowhere to be seen!

"Um where are they?" asked Calidan.

Jak was immediately concerned, and started moving ahead to the open junction, with Cal in tow. The tunnel they were in was narrow, with the drainages still on both sides of the walkway they were on. The smell seemed to become even more rancid as they continued on, but it was no surprise to them, and it made them all the more eager to get out of the sewer. As they approached the end of the tunnel that connected to the next junction, a light from the left caught their attention. They saw Sparx buzzing toward them and he seemed frantic.

"Guys! Guys! You may want to get moving, we have a situation up here!"

"What?" asked Jak.

"Come on!" he replied, immediately buzzing back the way he came. The two warriors raced after him, following the tunnel as it curled around clockwise. In the depths of the sewer that lay before them, they all wondered what they could have encountered down here. As they rounded the next bend, they found themselves in another tunnel, branched off the junction they had come from, however the scene was anything but calm.

"Raawwrr!" roared Spyro as he fired an inferno toward the metalhead grunts in front of him, enveloping them in fire. They screeched in pain as their bodies burned. Cynder was fighting one in close combat, attacking with blazing force from both her claws and tail. One last tail swipe left a nasty gash across the creatures face. More grunts were pouring in from the tunnel behind them, and were rushing like a mob.

"Looks like you guys found a fight," said Jak pulling out his morph gun and equipping his Vulcan Fury.

"Yeah, you could say that," replied Cynder knocking away her opposing grunt.

"Hope you don't mind if we cut in," Jak remarked while coming to Spyro's side and firing his Vulcan at the metalhead mob behind him. Grunts were being pelted by the force of his shots, some even falling. Not enough seem to be falling due to the randomness of his shots.

"You may want to go for a more direct approach!" said Calidan equipping his Omega Fire into rapid fire.

"I second that!" added Spyro, knocking away an approaching grunt with his claw.

"Ugh," grunted Jak, "you guys are no fun." He switched over to his scatter gun and open fired, blowing back the whole mob with one shot, those that didn't drop dead lay down stunned.

"Fun? I prefer not dying in the filthy bowels of the sewers to be fun!" remarked Daxter.

"I actually agree with the rat in this case!" said Sparx.

"What did I tell you about calling me a rat?!" yelled Daxter.

"Save it you two!" Calidan yelled back, as he shot down two more grunts with his Omega Fire. There were now eight grunts left, and the group of heroes was advancing toward them ready to finish them off. The grunts were screeching at them, hoping to intimidate them, despite their disadvantage. Although to the latter, it was more of an invitation.

"Time to end this," said Calidan, turning the knob on his gun. He aimed at their bases, and fired three bombs right in front of them. They stuck and began ticking, much to the confusion of the metalheads. Jak, Spyro, Cynder and the sidekicks shielded themselves, as Cal pushed the button on his gauntlet.

 **BOOOMMM!**

The grunts were blown away by the compulsive force of the simultaneous blasts, thus ending the battle. The heroes unshielded themselves, and were left to scene the aftermath of the dead metalhead bodies surrounding them. However, they knew this was the calm before the storm.

"Well," said Sparx, "I say that takes care of the slimy and gritty right guys?" His statement drew no response, other than Calidan saying aloud…

"So far the welcoming committee to this town has been nothing but hostile, and I'm definitely regretting ever coming here."

"Hey, wasteland or here, you are going to run into hostile forces, so cut out the complaints or were cutting you out," demanded Jak.

"Jak," complied Cynder.

"What? He was asking for it," said Jak.

"Hate to cut in here," cut in Daxter, "well actually I don't, because I would like to get out of this sewer hole as fast as possible, with all the fur on my body, so can we get moving again?"

"The path is clear again, it's best we keep moving forward," said Spyro. The others nodded in his direction and complied. They walked around the corpses at their feet and deeper into the tunnel that seemed to snake around through the depths.

* * *

 **Precursor Monk Temple**

Miles away from the war ravaged city, the desolate wasteland had not changed in its form or usual manner of running any stragglers to their death. The temple though was quiet, having been cleared of odd strangers just a short time ago. The monks had also been doing some cleaning, removing some rubble left by a fallen monolith in the temple upper atrium. None the less, everything was quiet inside, which was just fine for a certain precursor monk who was currently doing some more research into the strange archway mounted in a back chamber. It was the same one that had transported the dragons into their temple to begin with.

Seem was clear on her task, analyze the entire archway from top to bottom for any clues, while part of her team was also combing through the ancient texts kept within the walls of the temple library. They knew this archway had directed the dragons here, and now they were wondering if it could do the same in reverse, could they activate it, and then open a portal into the dragon's world. No one from their world had ever set foot off world, not since the days of Mar.

Having set off the team to Haven City through the subrails, Seem turned her attention toward the archway, giving it a full examination. Even though it proved still active given the passengers that had arrived, it was not responding at all since then. If there was a way to get the dragons to come here, there must be something to activate it to run it in reverse. So far there was no luck, research wasn't coming up with anything, at least right now, and there were no signs of any significant connections to the world of the dragons. She currently had a load of books in her hand, hoping they could aid in her interpretation of the runes on the archway.

"Master Seem," one of Seems monks came up the stairs to inform her from what was occuring elsewhere.

"The monks have been skimming the histories for any notion of the dragons, but there haven't been any revelations as of now."

"We know they exist, so there is no question that they are there. Tell them to stop skimming, they need to read all the chapters of those records, skimming skips sections that could hold valuable information."

"That could take weeks, maam," said the monk, "We're looking for one topic in a whole library of…"

"We can't afford excuses now!" demanded Seem, "the dragons are here without a return plan, and we must find a way to activate it again." The monk silenced himself and bowed in respect.

"If what the ancient one said is true, then the key to saving our world lies in the link between our two worlds, it's already proven to be recently active, so we know it is still there, there's just the matter of finding how this end of the link can be open to the other side," explained Seem.

"Any new epiphanies sister Seem?" asked the monk.

"Nothing," she said, it's as if secrets of the Precursors have been completely blocked from all life, or erased! I have not felt such frustration in the many years since I was initiated here on my path to enlightenment."

"Are we about to have another Seem history lesson?" the monk exaggerated humourously.

"Shouldn't you be returning to your research? Seem asked again.

"Where am I supposed to go?" he asked.

"Return to the library and assist in helping the others find the connection."

"Yes maam," and with that he returned back the way he came.

Seem turned back to the books she had in her hand, wondering if they could truly help, or if this was just the start of a long night of research in the monk temple library. Though as exhaustive as this undertaking was, she was also curious to all the new secrets they could uncover this night. The monk library was vast and held secrets beyond her years, dedicated as she was, there was only a fraction of knowledge held within the library that she had took the time to study. Most of it was on the origins of the Precursors, it was her entire life's work. Though now she was searching for secrets of the dragons, something completely outside her area of expertise.

"The answers lie somewhere within this library," she said to herself, "and we must discover them."

The monks were working around the clock, one of them was up atop a ladder pulling down some books from their ancient history section. Three others were down on a table combing through looking for anything related to dragon history. The one who was conversing with Seem, the head of research, had returned to them and was walking by the bookcase, until he noticed something out of the ordinary.

"Huh?" he saw an open shelf clear of books and there was something along the shelf wall, some sort of carving. He put the books he was holding on the table, and immediately went over to the shelf.

"What is this?" he asked the others. However they didn't hear him, they were too consumed in their reading.

"Hey!" his remark finally caught their attention, including the one on the ladder.

"My brothers what is this?" he asked pointing toward the side wall of the shelf.

"What is what?" Monk 1 replied, getting up from the table and walking over toward him.

"This inscription," Head Research Monk said, as the others walked over to look, they saw it. A creature was carved into the side wall, it had a long and serpentine like body, similar to the leaper lizards they rode on through the wasteland. However, there was a key difference, it appeared to have very large wings, and there was no further mistaking its identity.

"This creature," said Head Research Monk, "it's a dragon"

"In our own library?!" questioned Monk 2.

"Why did you not notice it before I came back?"

"We were too engrossed in the books, you and Master Seems orders were to comb through the texts, you didn't mention anything else," replied Monk 1.

"It appears we have been searching in all the wrong places then," said Monk 3.

"If there is a carving of these creatures in our library, and it's been unnoticed until now," began Head Research Monk, "it's clear this was here to be discovered one day, without anyone told throughout the history of the monks."

"If no one was ever told, maybe it was meant to stay hidden," said Monk 4.

"With the arrival of the dragons on our planet again, then perhaps it's time this secret was uncovered again," said Head Research Monk. He examined the carving from top to bottom, and noticed that the tail of the creature dropped below the second shelf and toward the bottom shelf. He crouched down to see where the tail would lead. On the bottom shelf, he noticed the tail disappeared behind the books on the bottom. He started removing the books that were stacked up against the left side of the wall where the tail disappeared. He then saw it, on the back side of the wall where the tail tip was directed, there was a series of cobblestones, a column of two staked on top of one another. Several of these made up the base of the wall and stretched all along it, however this cobblestone that sat on top of its bottom piece had a mark, and it was easily identified, the Seal of Mar.

"Mar?" questioned the Head Research Monk. The others crouched down to see the mark for themselves. They were actually surprised to see the seal for once, normally it was something they saw every day, but not in this manner.

"This stone must be removed," deduced the Head Research Monk.

"I'll get a hammer and chisel," said Monk 1 and he turned back down the hall and quickly disappeared from sight. He wasn't gone long though, after about 5 minutes he returned with the tools in hand. The head monk started chiseling around the stones edges, breaking the clay that had held it in place for untold ages. Surprisingly, he noticed that the clay wasn't very deep, just enough to keep it secure. After a good 30 minutes of chiseling, the stone was finally loose.

"Here we go," he started pulling it out on the sides, slowly dragging the stone out from its resting place. Fortunately the shelf was high enough to allow him room to move it from up top of the bottom cobblestone. He removed it completely and upon its emergence they all noticed that it had a small slab sitting atop a clear opening, showing that the stone was hollow. He removed the slab from atop the stone, and inside, found a book.

"Another book?" said Monk 3. It wasn't one found among their usual collections, it was made of a shining metal, somewhat resembling gold. It was slightly bigger than a pocketbook, which is what allowed it to fit inside the stone in the first place. Its outer covering was highly decorated, and on it was a new kind of seal. A single dragon head with wings was bordering a symbol resembling Mar's but with an intertwining trinity like mark in the middle.

"I've never seen this sign before," said Head Research Monk.

"I don't think anyone on this planet has," said Monk 4.

The head monk took the book into his hands, setting down the stone it came from on the floor. He opened the cover, and found a full manuscript written in what appeared to be ancient Precursor runes. He couldn't interpret it completely, but he was sure with some more research into ancient texts he could decipher it. He turned a few more pages, and found a picture which shocked him. It was an illustration of the archway, the same one the purple dragon and his friends had entered from, and their appeared to be pictographic details about it all the way onto the next page. He turned to the next page eager to see what was next, and found four more illustrations. They appeared to be ancient precursor artifacts, similar to what had been gathered around the wasteland. However if they were in this book that had been hidden with such extremes, they knew they must be crucial to the archway.

"We must inform Seem of this at once."

* * *

 **Haven City Sewers**

The heroes continued traveling through the pipe path for about a half hour. A couple metalhead hoppers and grunts continued plaguing the path ahead for them, but they proved no match for the group. Between the dragons elements, Jak's eco powers, and Calidan's arsenal they made quick work of them. However, Calidan was growing concerned as his munitions were running low, he had scavenged dozens of these bombs from Marauder camps, but now he had almost depleted half of his supply. He knew he was going to have to resort to his guns rapid fire setting if he was going to remain dependable. Only problem was it wasn't as strong as Jak's scatter gun or blaster, but it would have to do. The good news was they had found the center junction five minutes ago, and were now following the southern path as directed by the position markers they found at it. As their trek continued, a conversation began.

"These sewers are as long as I remember, and the stink is even worse," said Cynder.

"Yeah, sorry your return had to take a detour down here," replied Jak.

"Yeah, well I was just happy back home thank you very much!" complained Sparx.

"Sparx," said Spyro.

"What? I'm tired of us always being the adventurers! Why can't we just stay home and enjoy life for a change?"

"You mean you stay home and stuff yourself with butterflies?" remarked Cynder harshly.

"Didn't say it was a bad thing," said Sparx.

"Hey glowboy!" yelled Daxter, "I'm not a fan of the long distance travel either, but I've learned that after everything we've been through that you've gotta learn to take the good with the bad, so suck it up, or else things will really go downhill!"

"Wow Dax," said Jak, "big words coming from you."

"Yeah well, it just takes the right circumstances and irritating punk," said Daxter.

"Watch it fuzzball!"

"Enough!" yelled Spyro, silencing both of them. "We have enough to worry about without you two at each other's throats, so grow up for a change!" Jak was kinda shocked, he wasn't used to seeing the purple dragon in an angry demeanor, except toward his enemies. Though he had to agree with him, he also had enough of their friends bickering.

"I agree, you two need to find some common ground, there is a lot at stake here, and we can't be fighting amongst ourselves," said Jak. The sidekicks finally decided to silence themselves, looking at the big picture for a change.

"Uh guys?" Calidan caught their attention further up the pipe, "are we going to find our way out of this sewer, or are you going to keep fighting?" They all sighed out of exhaustion.

"Are you all really a team? So far I've seen a lot of dissention and disagreement? In fact, this kind of stuff is the reason I'm usually a loner to begin with."

"Hey!" Cynder called, "these two nitwits don't speak for the rest of us, and their quarrel is between themselves, we've fought together for the sake of our worlds and our friends before and we'll do it again."

"Cynder's right," said Spyro.

"Hmm," murmured Calidan.

"Look rogue," said Jak, "we may have just met but I can tell you're a guy who doesn't like conflict, and this whole ordeal is about to get a lot bigger than you can imagine, so I'm saying this one last time, either come with us or go back into your hole."

"Go back? There's no going back from this, not after what we've heard."

"Then no more complaining, so things got a little heated, it happens, what matters now are moving on and looking at the bigger picture."

"Fine, then I say we move on and get out of here."

Their conversation concluded, the group continued moving along the pipe path in front of them. Soon they came to another corner, it led to the right. Once they rounded it, they saw another sewer lock gate, and as they all approached it, the tumblers became active, shifting and unlocking in all the correct areas before splitting open. Another junction was revealed to them, and it was open like the inside of a snowglobe, one path leading up to a pillar, surrounded by black pit on all sides. It was clear, one misstep and you would be lost in the pits of Haven, at least for those who couldn't fly.

"Woah, watch your step," said Cal.

"You should, seeing how you can't fly," replied Jak.

"Rub it in why don't you," he steamed.

"Well, we have our exit," said Spyro looking ahead of the pillar. It was a short tunnel leading to what appeared to be an elevator lock. Hopefully this one would lead to the surface.

"I am so there," said Sparx zipping ahead of them.

"Figures," replied Cynder. However, as Sparx was flying above the pit toward the tunnel, he stopped in midflight. Something was catching his attention, and in an unsettling way.

"Sparx what is it?"

"I'm feeling something under my wings, like a whirring hum."

"It's not just a feeling," said Calidan, "I hear it too." They all heard it, it was a whirring hum like Sparx said, and the pitch seemed to be growing higher and higher. They looked around for a source but saw nothing active. They last looked to the pit, looking for anything out of the ordinary. For a few moments, there was nothing, until they saw shadows come out of the blackness forming shapes. Everyone took defensive stances, and Sparx was frozen in place. The figures emerged from the pit and surrounded them in the air.

"Oh great," said Jak. Metalhead wasps with jetpacks surrounded all of them. They outnumbered them eight to four, not counting the sidekicks. Sparx stayed back toward the wall, not even daring get close to them. Numbers didn't matter to the heroes, they were close to exiting the sewer, and no metalheads were going to get in their way.

"Ready when you guys are," said Cal.

"Wait for them to make the first move," said Jak. The wasps continued circling them, but they could hear their guns charging. But before the two warriors could reach their guns, the metalheads open fired. They ducked along the path in front of the pillar, just barely avoiding their fire. As they homed in again, Jak finally holstered his blaster and shot from the ground.

BOOM!

One shattered dead, leaving seven remaining. As the other metalheads recovered from the shockwave of the explosion, Calidan holstered his Omega Fire and started switching it to rapid fire setting. Another wasp flew right in front of him, charging his gun. Calidan rolled to avoid his blast, just barely. He pulled out his gun and fired, some shots making contact forcing the wasp to fly back.

The dragons took flight and started attacking the wasps in their own terrain. Spyro grabbed one and began kicking it in its gut. Once the wasp became unresponsive, he threw it back against the wall, and it exploded upon contact. Cynder came in between two wasps at the same time, and pulled up a wind twister, which sucked them both into a loop around her. She pulled up and out of the twister, causing the two wasps to impact each other and explode. Four wasps remained, and the tide was on their side.

Jak shot at another wasp above him, causing it recoil back, but before it could readjust itself, Jak shot him again. That wasp blew apart and fell into the abyss below, lowering the threat rate down. Cal kept shooting at the two wasps closing in on him, the rapid fire was keeping them at bay, but not inflicting much damage. The wasps found an opening in his fire and attempted to engage, only to be cut off suddenly by an electric bolt through the air which stunned them.

Spyro was flying in to engage them while Cynder dealt with the final wasp on the other side of the junction. Spyro noticed that both wasps were within linear range of his position and decided on one final shot. He activated his fire powers and comet dashed, plowing through the first one and finishing the second one by running into the wall where it burst on impact.

"Hey! I had them you know," Cal told Spyro.

"I had a perfect shot," said Spyro, "though a little appreciation would be appropriate."

"Sure, sure," said Cal dryly, which Spyro felt tested to. "Just not used to being rescued, if that's what it was."

"Knock it off, we cover each other backs," said Jak. "We don't then we pay with blood from one of our own, and we can't accept that."

"Understood," Cal strongly stated.

"Well, now that the pests have been exterminated," said Cynder, having finished the last wasp with a poison bomb, "can we please leave this sewer hole now?"

"Cynder! You don't have to tell me twice!" said Sparx, "freedom and fresh air here I come!" And he buzzed down the path from the junction platform that led to the tunnel which housed the elevator. Everyone else could just shake their heads, though they did share the desire to vacate the sewers now, they personally have had enough. The dragons flew up to the tunnel, leaving Jak and Cal bringing up the rear. As they reached the tunnel and started walking toward the elevator, Cal asked a question,

"Any chance you have any high quality armaments in this city I can get my hands on? I need an upgrade, because I won't last with what I have now."

"I thought you were one who makes the best out of what you got," shot Jak, "Don't tell me you're going back on your declaration."

"That was in the wasteland," Cal argued. "Here in the city, there are resources everywhere, sounds like a free arsenal to me."

"Hey!" said Jak. "Weapons are not something that can be just handed out to anyone, you have to prove your dedicated to the protection of this city and its people. So you have a long way to go to even consider asking for munitions from the Freedom League!"

"ugh, really?" said Cal. Jak gave him a blank stare that ended the conversation.

"Fine, fine, let's just get to the surface."

The warriors approached the elevator which the dragons were already waiting by, and as the group was together once again the elevator lock tumblers began to activate again. The door opened up for them allowing them to take the trip to the surface. It was a good 30sec ride, but they found themselves facing another city lock. But before it opened, the newcomers were wondering to themselves, what were they in for now?

* * *

Hope you are all still enjoying the adventure, stay vigil, there's more to come!


	14. Chapter 14 Back to Torn

Apologies for the long wait, but my life has drastically changed as of late, for the better I can assure you. None the less, I will continue this story to its end, there is so much yet to come, and I hope you all will be patient with me, none the less, Happy New Year everyone! Here is chapter 14!

* * *

Ch14: Back to Torn

The city-lock door fully opened, exposing the group to the atmosphere of Haven port, pungent, rancid nearly to the sewers, and heavily battle scarred from the war that had plagued the city. The group stepped out and found themselves on a wide stoned sidewalk, with many of them broken or obliterated. To the right was exit to the Haven boardwalk, large and littered, though they were surprised to see a large column collapsed over the side of an inner wall. Their view followed it to the left, where they saw in horror, the body of the palace completely collapsed over, blocking the way into the inner part of the city.

"By the ancestors," gasped Spyro, "the devastation is just as bad here as anywhere."

"Yeah, well that's war bro," replied Sparx, "we should know, we've seen it ourselves."

"Any idea where we are supposed to go from here?" Cal asked Jak, "because all I'm seeing here is a pile of rubble."

"Locate the Freedom League," said Jak, "then we can find transport to HQ."

"HEY!" a yell immediately caught their attention, and they turned toward the boardwalk, where they saw a blue armored guard pointing at them. "Freeze all of you!"

"Well that was quick," said Daxter dryly.

"Should we run now?" stuttered Sparx.

"No, we came here to find them, and we've found them, just leave me to this," said Jak. He stepped forward ahead of them, just as the guard was joined by two others and walked toward the whole group. The first stood in front of Jak while the other two walked around him toward the others.

"You certainly look familiar, though last I heard you were banished from here," the guard told him.

"Yeah, well sorry, didn't sit well with me, and from what I can gather I'm needed here, so happy to disappoint you," said Jak.

"You've got some nerve talking to authority like that, I see nothing has changed with you," the guard sneered.

"Hey bucko," said Daxter, "we've been through the fire and we're still standing, so don't count us out by a long shot!"

"He's here because of us!" yelled Spyro.

"Spyro," Jak tried to intervene.

"We came here because we persuaded him it was for the best," the purple dragon continued, "and believe me it is, we've been warned…"

"Shut up freak!" yelled one of the guards in front of him, pointing his gun at his head. "You have no business here much less trying to explain yourself!" His comment and threat toward Spyro made Cynder growl and tense up. She prepared to strike, until Jak's interrogator spoke again.

"Wait a sec, I know you all," said the guard catching everyone's attention, "You're those aliens Praxis took a long time ago." His comment stunned everyone.

"Uh, yes we are," replied Spyro, quite stunned that one of the guards would know him that well.

"First the exile, now the aliens, this is anything but a coincidence," said the guard.

"Do we even care Captain Striker?" said the other guard in front of the group. "Last I heard from the council, this lot wasn't welcome back in our city walls, after everything went to hell."

"Well from where I'm standing," said Striker, "things have only been getting worse since then, so we all are on our way into hell if not yet, and I've heard the commander's monologue on all this. If things are going to get better, we will need this lots help, regardless of the council, otherwise there won't be a city to govern."

"I'm taking this as an acceptance back?" asked Jak.

"The boss will be the one to veto that vote, otherwise it's my badge, but at this rate the battles to come will be our last one, so you and your crew follow me, and no funny business from any of you, otherwise, you'll be shot from where you stand."

Striker turned around and led the way out onto the boardwalk. Jak followed right behind him, with Spyro, Cynder, and Calidan bringing up the rear with the other two guards escorting them from behind. Sparx kept close to Spyro, for obvious reasons. They walked up onto the boardwalk where they saw the port pond, with all the floating cargo barges still occupying it. In the distance were the two towers that overlooked both ends of the port, connected by one multilinked bridge that span across from one end of the port to the other.

During their trek toward the west side, they continued to observe their surroundings, the two towers and the bridge across to the other ends of the boardwalk seemed to be littered with debris. The league was cleaning up most of it, though some were akin to wonder why should they since the war continued to litter the streets. Though as leadership pointed out it was for the best, they didn't want either opposing faction to regain what was lost and rebuild or regrow. They had just reached the first bend, and within sights they could see Daxter's bar, the Naughty Ottsel, and the enormous float above it.

"What the heck is that freaky thing?!" stuttered Sparx.

"Watch it glowboy!" yelled Daxter shooting him a look.

"Daxter," said Cynder, "you couldn't have a bigger head." Everyone laughed, even the guards.

"Yeah, that thing makes for good target practice once in a while," said Striker.

"HEY!"

"Any particular reason we are heading to the bar?" Jak asked, "are you guys stationed there?"

"You could say that, but no more questions, we'll leave that to the commander." Everyone silenced themselves as they continued on their walk toward the Naughty Ottsel. They observed their surroundings and saw that some patrolmen were still out on the port boardwalks surrounding the towers. They could even see some at work atop the right tower, apparently at work on some sort of communication device.

They reached the front of the Naughty Ottsel and upon approaching, the door opened. Captain Striker went first, followed by Jak, Daxter, Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, Calidan, and then the other two guards. Upon entering, they saw that the interior had changed. The dragons and their dragonfly friend noticed that the metalhead trophies that had once aligned the walls were gone, and there were pictures up along the wall of Daxter. That shot dead Cynder's earlier comment about the orange ottsel. On the other hand, there were weapons everywhere along the floor, and city maps aligned the walls next to the bar seats and tables. In the center of the room, was a portable holographic generator nearly 20 feet in diameter. The company in back by the bar caught their attention soon after, and they could clearly see who the commander was they were talking about as he was discussing some battle plans with two other troopers.

"Commander Torn!" Striker called with a salute.

"What?" he said turning his attention to the group.

"We found someone exiting from the sewers, albeit unexpected," he told Torn stepping aside to reveal everyone, which shocked Torn apparently.

"Jak! Hehe well well I never thought I'd see you again," he said with a grin walking over toward them.

"Well happy to disappoint you," Jak said extending his hand for his old friend to shake, which he happily accepted.

"Hasn't been the same without you man."

"Oh Torn," Daxter interrupted, "would you please tell me what you are doing to my humble abode?"

"We needed a southern HQ for the war, we're currently…" Torn stopped when he saw who was behind Jak.

"Spyro? Cynder?"

"Hey Torn! Great to see you again," said Spyro walking up to him with Cynder in tow.

"Jak is one thing, but you guys too? Man this city just keeps getting more and more dangerous," Torn jabbed in good humor.

"Well, you can never have too many allies, and from what we've seen you are gonna need all you can get," said Cynder.

"Ain't that the truth, and I can't believe we had to lose our best one," Torn said saddened turning toward Jak. "I'm sorry we couldn't stop Count Veger, we all are."

"We know Torn, and don't worry about it, that's why we are here, he's been giving information that's viable to our planets survival, and so have we," explained Jak.

"What?!" said Striker, "our planets? You're not serious?"

"I'm afraid so, we've been warned about an upcoming invasion, and the key to stopping it lies at the bottom of the catacombs," said Spyro.

"The catacombs?" asked Torn.

"They've been blocked off since the war began," said Guard 1, "and the metalhead and KG factions are picking us apart from both ends, we are not really in a situation to go out on an expedition, if we were even able to make one."

"Then we just might have to cause an upset then," said Calidan shouldering his gun. "Let them come to us and we beat them on our turf."

"Hey! No one said you could talk wastelander!" One of the two guards got in front of him holstered his gun. The other was preparing his, and everyone got defensive, this looked like it was on the breaking point to an ugly fight.

"Woah,woah,woah," said Calidan slightly backing away, "No need for aggression, was just making a suggestion.

"A foolish one at that," said guard 2, "another reason to kick you out wastelander, so by my authority I…"

"ENOUGH!" shouted Torn, capturing everyone's stunned expressions.

"I'm in charge here and any sudden declarations come to me first," said Torn.

"But sir," said Guard 2, "he's a wastelander, and they are…"

"Banished? At this point I don't care about the councils decisions, all they are going to do is engage in bureaucracy and somehow preserve their own power at our expense, so screw them!"

His venting ceased, and everyone was silent for a moment trying to collect their thoughts. As the commander approached the young warrior, he spoke again.

"So kid, you looking to join in on the fight? I should tell you that there is going to be plenty of heavy fighting to go around, and we don't allow any into our roust if the only defense he can bring is a gun and a bad shot," said Torn.

"Bad shot?! Hardly, and I've managed to work well with what I've got," Cal replied.

"Okay then cocky, answer me," said Torn, "who are you?"

"Names Calidan, Cal for short, and I'm a wastelander."

"Why would a wastelander come back to the city they were banished from?"

"Hey, as I've told before, I was never banished! I was born and raised out there, lived my whole life there until I found myself crossing paths with these guys," Calidan finished.

"So you picked him up eh?" Torn asked Jak.

"An unexpected encounter if there ever was one," replied Jak.

Torn continued looking towards Cal, "new faces are nervous enough, but I'm lenient in this case since I've had my fair share of good eggs, but you have to prove you're willing to fight for our cause if you even want to think about sticking around."

"Oh I don't plan on sticking around," said Cal, "just long enough so that the impending threat is neutralized and I can go home back to my buddy and live in peace."

"Your buddy?" asked Torn.

"Are you talking about that wildcat?" Jak asked him.

"Yeah," replied Cal, "you have your friends to care for, and I have mine."

"You tell me all your fighting for is a cat?!" asked Torn angrily.

"Hey! That cat is the most loyal companion I've ever had in a long time!" replied Calidan, "he's worth it, as much as any of your men are to you." His response silenced Torn, and the whole group.

"Ha, out of everyone in the world, the wastelander is worried about a cat, what a lowly life," said Guard 2. His statement drew everyones attention, and not in a good way, that was a true low blow, insulting someones life based on their circumstances was inexcusable.

Calidan was seething, "You just…"

SMACK! Suddenly everyone was shocked right where they stood. In an instant the guard was hit face flat on the ground, and above him was Captain Striker. "That was absolutely intolerable soldier! You've been taught and trained better than that, we all have!"

The guard attempted to pick himself up, "but sir, I"

"Silence, I won't hear any more from you," said Striker as he turned to the other guard, "take him outside, I'll deal with him soon enough." He nodded in response and approached the fallen guard as he retrieved his gun. Submitting to the captain, he walked out of the bar with his escort. Striker walked past the group to follow.

"Captain," said Calidan, stalling him as he exited, "Thanks." He nodded and walked out. Once the guards had escaped from view Torn turned toward the other guards at the bar he was previously speaking to. "You two, head back out on patrol, we'll continue later." The guards saluted and walked toward the door, once they had exited, Torn spoke again.

"Apologies for that, he'll be reprimanded for that later I assure you."

"He didn't have to do that," said Cal, "I was about to do it myself."

"I'm sure," said Jak, "but we didn't come here to fight our own men, we came to fight the enemy."

"Agreed," added Spyro, "letting our differences get between us won't solve anything."

"He was still way out of line Spyro," stated Cynder.

"Regardless," cut in Torn as he approached the holograph generator, "Spyro is right, we have bigger problems to deal with, and making it through to HQ is at the top of the list."

"You can't get back from here?" asked Jak.

"Afraid so, Veger sent us on a suicide attack to hold off the port and we ended up cut off by the KG, now our way to HQ is blocked off," said Torn putting his hands on the console.

"Just another one of his despicable actions," seethed Cynder, "it seems the only one he's interested in helping is himself!"

"Yeah, I know, broken record," said Torn.

"Samos said the only way we can get into the catacombs is by regrouping, we have to find a way to smash down the blockade!" stated Jak.

"You guys are the ones with the armaments," said Calidan, "don't you have something in your arsenal that can break it down?"

"Plenty, but there's more than one defense unfortunately, and they have to be eliminated before…"

BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!

"What's that?!" yelped Sparx.

"Proximity alert," replied Torn pushing a flashing button on the console, suddenly the holographic generator came to life, showing an unwelcome picture of an old nuisance. "Incoming blastbots are entering from the KG city section and are heading this way, can you guys handle this?"

"Busting robots?" said Jak fist smashing, "anytime"

"Well you guys said there was a heavy front coming, best face it head on," said Calidan.

"We'll help you out, count on it," added Spyro, which Cynder followed with a nod.

"There are three total, split into teams to cover them all, and take them out before they bust our squads, move now!" said Torn. They all nodded and headed for the door. As soon as they exited, they were met with an unwelcome sight, KG deathbots were taking up half the boardwalk in the distance. Roboguards and spydroids were crawling up the left side of the boardwalk, and opening fire at the Freedom league guards to the right. One of the blastbots was approaching them with its laser armed to fire. Jak quickly looked around and noticed a lone A-wing zoomer next to the Naughty Ottsel. He clasped Calidan's shoulder.

"Come on!" he ran towards it, and picking up on his notion, Calidan followed while the dragons took flight. Jak jumped up on the zoomer with Daxter on his shoulder as usual, and Calidan jumped right behind him. Jak flipped the switch and started the engines, elevating the zoomer. He accelerated and lurched through the air toward the towers, nearly knocking Calidan off as he steadied himself on the back seat brace. The dragons flew right behind them, just barely able to keep up with the zoomers speed. The zoomer finally reached the boardwalk and they were hovering above the battle. Jak called to Spyro and Cynder,

"I'll handle this one, you guys head toward the north side and find one of the other two, Calidan, take the zoomer and find the last, we'll regroup back at the Naughty Ottsel! Alright?!"

The dragons nodded and turned around to fly the other way, with Sparx right behind them. Jak leapt from the zoomer and landed on the walkway, just behind the Freedom league barricade. Calidan took control of the zoomer and after a quick study of its handling, pressed the switch which propulsed it forward and turned around toward the sewer lock. Jak made his way through the Freedom barricade, catching some attention from the guards who were in shock that he was back. He didn't have time to go into details, the blastbot was in front of him, and it fired its laser before Jak could reach his gun!

BOOMM!

Jak had just rolled to the side to avoid the blast just in time. The Freedom League had opened fired on it, pelting its armor with their lasers. Jak finally unholstered his weapon and turned on the blaster mod. He began pelting it with blaster fire. The blastbot appeared to not feel any of the assault, though Jak's blaster was generally more powerful than the Freedom League lasers. Instead in response, the blastbot opened up some compartments on its main body, and out popped 3 small timed bombs landing just in front of his feet.

"Quick Jak! Kick the bombs right back at him!" yelled Daxter. Jak heeded his friends advice and kicked the nearest bomb right back at the blastbot, it hit right at its main body, collapsing one of the legs.

"Yeah! Do it again!" cheered Daxter

Jak retaliated with another kick, this one blowing the leg off completely. The guards behind cheered on at the winning duo. But there was one bomb left, and Jak had a different idea to use this one for. He adjusted his vector from the blastbot to the KG armada behind it, and with one swift kick, the bomb flew and detonated on impact, blowing away half the armada. They had won this one, and to mark it Jak unholstered his blaster again and took aim at the blastbots eye, and fired.

BOOOMM! The blastbot fragmented and became inoperable.

"Oh yeah! The trouble twins are back, and ready to rock!" cheered Daxter.

"Daxter" said Jak

"What we've won right? Can't we move on to the celebration?"

"The celebration is on hold until the city is completely free, and that isn't for a long while so best keep the momentum going!"

"We can handle these clankers," one of the guards said to Jak as the rest of the barricade was attacking the remaining KG forces. "You on the other hand have somewhere else to be, and it ain't here."

"Right," said Jak, and with his blaster drawn, and Daxter on his shoulder, they both took off down the boardwalk in the opposite direction.

* * *

Spyro and Cynder had just engaged their blastbot by the port entrance. Its laser had fired two shots at them near misses. But their agility served them well, none made contact. Spyro and Cynder flew in to attack head on, Spyro with an electric bolt and Cynder with a poison wheel attack. The bolt shorted out its systems while the poison wheel covered the entire right side of its body. The poison was melting the legs it stood on, nearly incapacitating it. But before the machine became inoperable, the bot turned its head and fired one more shot at Cynder. She wasn't looking where she was going and took a shot to the back of the thigh.

"Aagh!"

"Cynder!" Spyro cried, fearing for her health. She dropped out of the sky and luckily landed on one of the port cargo barges. Seeing that she wasn't at least drowning, Spyro immediately turned towards the deathbot in rage. He tensed his jaw, and activated his earth powers, encasing himself in a ball of earth energy. He fell right out of the sky, and landed right on top of the blastbot, crushing it like a can. The impact upsetting the bombs inside the bot caused them to detonate as well,

 **BOOOOMMMM!**

The detonation blew machine parts everywhere, as well as the orb Spyro had encased himself in. It propelled him over 100 feet in the air, before falling back down under gravity's pull. There was a CRUNCH upon impact, leaving a crater a good 3 feet deep. Spyro deactivated the shield, and shook off the stars that were dancing in his head.

"Oohh, I forgot about that, why they call them blastbots," he said, "wait, oh no! Cynder!"

The black dragoness was the only thing on his mind now, as he rushed back over to the side of the boardwalk, to his relief she was still sitting on the cargo barge. She was also moving, but was in inevitable pain. He quickly flew down to her.

"Cyn, are you ok? Please?!"

"Spyro, relax," she soothed him, "I'm okay, just a lucky shot, it scratched me nothing more."

"Can you move it?" asked Spyro. She attempted to move her leg, only to feel a stinging pain shoot through her leg.

"Agghh! I hate to say it but no," she said, "darn it, my first day back to Haven and I end up with one bruised leg."

"Just be glad were not in jail again," joked Spyro.

"Funny, real funny"

"Here Cynder," said Spyro squatting down next to her and gripping her from underneath her arms and pulling her to her feet. "I'll fly us back to the bar, I'll make sure to stay low to avoid any gunfire."

"I'll take care of them, you do the flying," said Cynder. So Spyro started flapping his wings, beginning his ascent with Cynder in his arms. With a little bit of extra effort, Spyro was able to pull Cynder into the air. Suddenly Sparx buzzed right in front of them looking like he had seen a ghost.

"There is no open path up there! Robots and lasers everywhere!"

'Where to now?' wondered Spyro.

"Spyro," said Cynder, she caught his attention, "how about that bridge?" She was referring to the bridge that linked the towers. There was a gap where the barges passed back and forth, and were concealed enough to hide something, like how the gang hid their zoomers from the Krimzon Guard a long time ago.

"We'll be taking the long way back, but it's a way none the less," said Spyro.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" yelled Sparx.

* * *

Calidan had located the final blastbot and had abandoned the zoomer to take it on foot, though it was a bit more of a challenge then he expected. Calidan engaged the blastbot by the sewer lock as heavy as he could, though his Omega Fire rapid fire setting was doing nothing but apparently denting it. The gunfire of the two guards was just as effective, not slowing down the bot at all as it advanced toward them. Calidan was really wishing he could swap out his armaments for some of Jak's weapons, specifically the Arc Wielder that had done in the Precursor robot earlier. The blastbots laser honed in on Cal's position and prepared to fire.

"heads up!"

The laser fired just after Calidan lunged to the side just barely avoiding it. He continued to fire even from the ground, but the bot refused to stall. "Were gonna need more firepower if we want to even try and disable it!" said one of the guards.

"This might nearly deplete my supply, but it's now or never" Cal turned to the guards, "I think I have something to disable it, but were gonna have to fall back to avoid the shockwave! Be ready to take cover!"

The guards were hesitant to take advice from a newcomer, much less a wastelander, but considering the bot seemed to be gaining ground on them, they weren't in much of a position to argue. Calidan changed his gun back to its bomb setting and got back to his feet. He took aim at the front left leg of the blastbot and pressed the trigger. The bomb propelled out and hit the leg just above its linking point.

The guards were flabbergasted as to what he was doing, to them it looked like he just shot a blank. Cal turned and started to re-aim at the other leg. The blastbot continued to advance on him as he continued to trek back in response. It started to readjust its laser to him, but just before it could hone in, Cal fired again and another bomb hit the blastbots other leg nearly right on the link this time.

"Are you really shooting blanks at this thing?!" yelled one of the guards.

"No! Bombs, and like I said take cover!" Calidan said before retreating on the boardwalk. The guards finally gained sense upon hearing his explanation and followed right behind him. The blastbot had adjusted its laser to their original position and was about to fire until they moved, so it halted its laser and continued to follow them. Cal ran until the pathway angled down and dropped to a lower level, giving him perfect cover. So he dove down and turned on the communications link on his gauntlet. He was soon joined by the guards who dove down right next to him.

"If you're going to blow it, I would suggest now," said Guard 1.

"Hold on, I'm waiting for the link to respond," said Calidan, as he saw on his gauntlet the connection was 80% complete, and the blastbot was getting closer, "Come on, come on."

The blastbot had almost reached the walkway drop, when Cal saw that the connection was complete and pinged at him, "Keep down!" he yelled as he pressed the ignition button.

 **BOOOMMM!**

The shockwave rattled them slightly, but after a minute, they peeked over and saw the aftermath. The blastbot had been blown completely over, toppled by the loss of its front legs. They slowly approached it, eager to inspect and verify that it was busted. However, their approach was halted by a beeping sound coming from the robot. The beeping frequency appeared to increase, which raised Calidan's suspicion.

"That sound, don't tell me that's…"

"The main internal bomb is active! It's gonna blow! DUCK!" yelled a guard finishing his sentence. They all retreated again to below the walkway and ducked down.

Beep…Beep…BEEP…BEEP… **KABLAAAMMMM!**

An even heavier explosion rocked them, fortunately they had their heads covered to minimize the damage. The sound of falling debris around them caused them to peek out again. Once the impact of the blast subsided, they picked themselves up to turn back to the source. There was nothing left but blastbot pieces, and the walkway had been cracked slightly due to the force of the blast.

"One more for the junk heap," said Guard 1.

"And one more mess to clean up," said Guard 2.

"Better the walkway then your base, right?" said Calidan.

"Yeah," said Guard 1, who paused for a moment before continuing, "look, I still don't know if you being here is legit or not, but none the less, you did good." Cal nodded to him accepting the compliment.

"Hey Cal!" He turned to see Jak and Daxter approach from behind, having run all the way around the boardwalk.

"Successful?" he asked rhetorically seeing the blastbots remnants on the walkway.

"More or less."

"Squad 2 reporting sir," Guard 2 had his hand up to his helmet, activating his comlink, "blastbot threat neutralized Commander Torn."

 _Excellent work, have Jak and his crew meet me back at base we have some battle plans to go over. You and your fellow squads continue your patrol, clean up any remnants from the attack._

"Affirmative sir," he pulled his hand away from his helmet and turned toward Jak and Calidan. "The commander wants you both back at the Naughty Ottsel, there's intel to share."

"Jak!" the party of soldiers turned to see the dragons and Sparx return from their successful blastbot bust. They were concerned however to see that Spyro was carrying Cynder in his arms.

"Cynder," said Jak, "what happened?"

"A robot hit her in the leg," explained Spyro.

"Don't worry," assured Cynder, "it's just a bruise."

"But we did it! The other soldiers are chasing what's left of the robots out of the port," said Spyro.

"Alright! This gang is on a roll!" added Calidan.

"Let's continue the momentum, Torn wants us back at the Naughty Ottsel, this war is far from over," said Jak.

* * *

Stay vigil, there's more to come!


End file.
